STILL HERE

(I wonder if you've read Ram Dass's book by that title--a marvelous book, written after the massive stroke that deprived him of many of his normal functioning facilities? He writes with grace and ease about living with disability, dependency, and the attendant indignities; and hence about aging and the prospect of death. A great teaching. The title, of course, plays on his earlier book, Be Here Now, which was an inspiration to many of my generation when it first came out in 1971. Regrettably, I was too young, too smart, and too convinced of my own intellectual superiority at the time to be able to pay attention to what I considered, in my wisdom, to be eastern mumbo-jumbo... It took me another quarter century to grow up.)

Anyway, I'm still here. I have neglected The Buddha Diaries in recent days, but have not disconnected. It's just that my mind is elsewhere, preoccupied with the--for me--lengthy text for a book that will be published next year. It's a monograph for a painter who came to art late and died much too young, after a period of frenetic activity that took him on a journey from enthusiastic amateur to truly accomplished painter. His bereaved husband is working to set up a foundation in his name, whose purpose is to offer annual grants to artists in the Los Angeles area. More of this as the year progresses. In the meantime, back to work...

I'll be back to more regular posting in due course, and meantime send love and blessings to all TBD readers. And goodwill out into a world that needs it from every one of us.