Lunch with the Buddha

By Stuart Waugh

HOT BUTTERED WEDGEWOOD

2 oz  amaretto
1 cup hot tea
1 T whipped, unsalted butter
Twist of orange peel
1 cinnamon stick
 
Combine tea and amaretto, add butter and orange peel and toss in a cinnamon stick, yo!

There’s a Buddhist saying that sez:  TO STAND ON TIPTOE ALL DAY, IT JUST CANNOT BE DONE- probably sounds better in the original language.   

But it kind of makes you wonder what would have inspired someone to put that set of words to paper, ya know?...  Maybe it was someone in a prison cell, standing on his little bench, trying to see out of a little barred window—

Or maybe it was about someone all alone under a tree in a field, hearing the screech of an owl in the distance at sunset, as he feels his tiptoes slipping a little more and a little more on the two-by-four stake he stands upon while the rope around his neck tightens—

Or maybe a commoner risking life and limb to just catch a glimpse of the love of his life through a crack in the window on a tower of a castle he will never be permitted to enter… 

Or maybe—

OK, alright, never mind, I get it, it’s been a long screwed up winter, I need to get out more.

And yet, sometimes, only sometimes I can feel my own tiptoes slipping, and need to catch my balance, or grab onto something quick.

And over the years I’ve been cool enough to say, “This is ridiculous, what, am I out of my mind, screw this” … and just walk away.

It was pretty easy back then, I guess … No, but then there was San Diego, and Ohio Debbie – that wasn’t cool or easy. And lately the devil’s been jacking up the price a little higher, and a little higher, so walking away is more like hobbling away, sometimes…

OK, enough about me. Gad I hate it when that happens. HOW ARE YOU!?  Hope your break was good and snappy, hope you fell in love when you least expected it, hope you got all your ya yas out and your laundry done, hope you made a joyful noise with whatever you play, hope your families gave you big smacks on the head and a couple o’ samoleans for the way back. 

Here’s another saying: TRUTHFUL WORDS ARE LIKE THE TASTE OF HONEY ON THE LIPS … to whom, I wonder – the sayer or the hearer?  Maybe both. That one there is from the Book of Proverbs in the Bible. I enjoy old sayings because they are usually small enough to carry around all day, and they can cheer me up – or someone else, ya know?

Here’s another one: HANDS TO WORK, HEARTS TO GOD - that’s one from the Amish folks.

I think the one about standing on tiptoe is quite powerful though, because it seems to point to an all-too-human tendency of having unrealistic expectations of people, places, and things, even though time after time disappointment comes when we fall into that deal.

As we get older, of course, we will not be so gullible or foolish, right? I know I won’t be when I grow up, no sirree, not me…