Toltec(?) Wisdom

I just finished The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Apparently, it was on the New York Times bestseller list for over five years. Did I know that? No. I only found out about it from Mighty Girl.

Anyway, it's a slim, attractively designed book and you can get through it pretty quickly. The four agreements are:

• Be impeccable with your word - Tell the truth, don't say bad things about other people--or yourself--and use your words for positive aims.
• Don't take anything personally - when people say or do bad things about you, that's their trip not yours.
• Don't make assumptions - have the sack to ask questions and ask for what you want.
• Always do your best - try your hardest, given the circumstances, and you won't beat yourself up later.

Pretty good, right? I think so. I really believe you could make significant changes in your life by following those four points. I also believe the book could have been one page long. Because while there were plenty of nice nuggets in the 150 pages, there was also lots of purple, meandering prose that left me wondering if Don Miguel weren't a bit of a charlatan hiding behind the Toltec seal of approval. Maybe it's because English is not his first language. Maybe.

Or maybe I need to be more impeccable with my word. Sorry, Don Miguel.

Consulting the Experts

It appears we, the taxpayers, are off to bail out some more financial institutions. Aren't we nice? We watch as the corporate executives of these firms float off with 8-digit bonuses and then we pay off their very greedy gambling debts. I've read quite a bit over the last few days in an attempt to better understand the shit sandwich we're about to tuck into.

Paul Krugman's column today, was helpful. I especially liked his last two paragraphs:

"I’m aware that Congress is under enormous pressure to agree to the Paulson plan in the next few days, with at most a few modifications that make it slightly less bad. Basically, after having spent a year and a half telling everyone that things were under control, the Bush administration says that the sky is falling, and that to save the world we have to do exactly what it says now now now.

But I’d urge Congress to pause for a minute, take a deep breath, and try to seriously rework the structure of the plan, making it a plan that addresses the real problem. Don’t let yourself be railroaded — if this plan goes through in anything like its current form, we’ll all be very sorry in the not-too-distant future."

And then I found this quote from John Greabe, one of the preeminent legal scholars of our time, who sums up the situation thusly:

"I have just eaten four pies and a gallon and a half of ice cream. I hope to make myself too big to fail by the end of the year."

I Could Use a Litte Boko-maru Right About Now

This week I pulled another book off the shelf for a re-read. Other than ice-nine, I remembered practically nothing from when I first read Cat's Cradle twenty years ago. I will try to do better this time around, because the book is so freaking fantastic. There is no one better at peeling back the layers on war and religion and people than Vonnegut. The book is very funny, but it's always slipping in these haymakers from behind bushes.

Here's what the newly appointed ambassador to San Lorenzo, Horlick Minton, says before he tosses a wreath in the ocean to memorialize the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy:

"I do not say that children at war do not die like men, if they have to die. To their everlasting honor and our everlasting shame they do die like men, thus making possible the manly jubilation of patriotic holidays.

But they are murdered children all the same.

And I propose to you that if we are to pay our sincere respects to the hundred lost children of San Lorenzo, that we might best spend the day despising what killed them; which is to say, the stupidity and viciousness of all mankind.

Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns."

A message for there for everyone, particularly those campaigning for a certain office.

Still Thinking of Butterflies?

You know that stupid commercial where the dad is leaning against the trunk of a tree thinking of butterflies? His daughter thinks he's crazy and gives him a littany of economic concerns regarding his business that should have him soiling the front and back of his Docker's.

"I'm with AIG, honey. So I'm just thinking of butterflies" he replies, cooly.

I wonder what he's thinking now. Like maybe how to get his daughter accustomed to the taste of dogfood. Or maybe it *is* still butterflies, only dusted with the ebola virus.

One other thing: what is a company that has to go, tail between its legs, to the Federal begging bowl for $90 billion doing buying prime-time ad spots? Not to mention clearly deceiving the brain-dead viewers.

The Secret to Life?

I was reading this meditation book the other night when I came upon the following passage. So simple, so clear, but most times really hard to do. Too often we react, as if that gap did not exist. A present from Bodhipaksa on the principles of mindfulness (pg. 27):

1. There's a gap between stimulus and response.
2. There is a choice in the gap.
3. The choices we make matter.
4. We can only choose if we have awareness.

The narrative describing each of those principles is really well done (as is the whole book). I was tempted to include more here, but Bodhipaksa's Mama probably needs a new pair of hemp sandals. So buy it. And the next time your child spills his/her chocolate milk all over your brand new shorts? Try to remember that gap.