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The Far Side of the World
Dec. 10th, 2003 08:16 amSo, I'm back in the Bay Area, and staying at San Francisco Zen Center for a few days, refocusing a bit, while I also run around getting in touch with many of my West Coast friends. This has the strange effect of being both relaxing and frenetic. The schedule at zen center, while not as demanding as during the summer, gives a nice structure to my days - up at 5:00 am, zazen, service, soji, breakfast, work, lunch break, zazen, service, dinner, break, bed at 10:00 pm. And it's wonderful to see all of my old friends again. And being in a community of people is really nice - although I have many friends around in Oxford and London, I also have a bad habit of being a hermit academic and spending a lot of time on my own. Having shared rooms, meals, etc. avoids that, and I think it's good for me occasionally. Regular meditation is also a plus, since I'd gotten haphazard in my observance on my own.
Of course, I can't entirely escape the rest of my life just by flying halfway around the world and staying in a religious community. I still have to find time to take my Real Estate Finance final online (should have done it before I left, but you know how these things go), and no small bit of scheduling is required to contact, coordinate and meet with about a half a dozen different folks from around the Bay Area in about four days. Plus, there's Dickens Fair, and getting to San Jose, and buying a bunch of Christmas presents, if I can find the free time. In what remains of it, I've embarked on the Patrick O'Brian opus, something I flirted with in my undergraduate days (I can't seem to forget that line about the goat from Master & Commander, the book), but have come back to now that the fandom on and offline has been ignited by the new movie. I also have a Captain Cook biography, the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo, and other bits and pieces I've been meaning to read. (The late 18th/early 19th Century thing is growing on me - good thing I'm looking at a thesis in that period.) And, of course, the glorious crack_van has be jonesing for television - namely Oz and (yes, finally) The West Wing. Oh, and there's still reading for the term ahead.
The moral of this story is - no matter where you go, you take the contents of your head with you. And that's not always a bad thing.
Top Five
1) SFZC and the wonderful people who live there.
2) Travel in all its heartache and hassle. Mmmm, duty free.
3) The beautiful City of San Francisco, for all its faults.
4) Age of Sail film and fiction. May it ever rule the waves.
5) West Wing Slash (you know of what I speak). It ate my brain!
Of course, I can't entirely escape the rest of my life just by flying halfway around the world and staying in a religious community. I still have to find time to take my Real Estate Finance final online (should have done it before I left, but you know how these things go), and no small bit of scheduling is required to contact, coordinate and meet with about a half a dozen different folks from around the Bay Area in about four days. Plus, there's Dickens Fair, and getting to San Jose, and buying a bunch of Christmas presents, if I can find the free time. In what remains of it, I've embarked on the Patrick O'Brian opus, something I flirted with in my undergraduate days (I can't seem to forget that line about the goat from Master & Commander, the book), but have come back to now that the fandom on and offline has been ignited by the new movie. I also have a Captain Cook biography, the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo, and other bits and pieces I've been meaning to read. (The late 18th/early 19th Century thing is growing on me - good thing I'm looking at a thesis in that period.) And, of course, the glorious crack_van has be jonesing for television - namely Oz and (yes, finally) The West Wing. Oh, and there's still reading for the term ahead.
The moral of this story is - no matter where you go, you take the contents of your head with you. And that's not always a bad thing.
Top Five
1) SFZC and the wonderful people who live there.
2) Travel in all its heartache and hassle. Mmmm, duty free.
3) The beautiful City of San Francisco, for all its faults.
4) Age of Sail film and fiction. May it ever rule the waves.
5) West Wing Slash (you know of what I speak). It ate my brain!