Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Sutras on the Half Shell


...the duality of fat free and cheese is absolute...nothing can be both...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 123:95

...have been so touched by the many good wishes & kind expressions of concern inspired by that bit in the last post about my bike accident, broken hand, and operation, that I’m tempted to turn this whole post into a big thank you note...with my mailing address and hints about what kindsa home-baked cookies I like best very subtly slipped in there somewhere....however, ethical concerns about truthfulness and integrity and all that...as well as the likelihood somebody'd narc me out before I got any of the aforementioned cookies...implore me to point out that it all happened five years ago...as described, with pictures and a few clever lines, here...and I’ve long healed up, which is good...as one thing you learn fast with one hand out of commission is that you generally use both of them for everything...and, though the mind always moves a lot faster than fingers can type, we get used to a certain ratio of thoughts to words...and when that ratio gets screwed up by the temporary loss of half of the usual fingers, the keyboard becomes a site of great frustration...which, most likely, would lead me to end this blog post right about here...

...in the most dysfunctional families, the dog still gets along with everybody...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 46:72

...somebody just asked me to help her write a recommendation for a mediocre student...the classic he’s not an axe-murderer kinda letter...for which, in the past, I’ve utilized handy phrases like she fulfilled course requirements...or he shows great potential for improvement...or her writing was grammatically sound, for the most part...or I enjoyed having him in my class...which, essentially, is another way of saying she seemed like a reasonably pleasant human being...or he’s not a total a-hole....so maybe it’d be better to drop all that, and go with a simple, all purpose she’s a human being who struggles and suffers and whose life can be difficult sometimes, so that, though she tries to succeed...as well as to find love and happiness and be as good a person as she can...she doesn’t always succeed...I recommend that we all try to be as understanding and compassionate as we can, now and always...but doubt that’s really what the admissions committee’s looking for...

...when truth is unknowable, it’s up to us to create meaning...or, failing that, to at least come up with some good jokes...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 101:78

13 comments:

elderyogini said...

Hey, Dr. Jay, author of Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutras,

"...the duality of fat free and cheese is absolute...nothing can be both..."

Keep working on the non-duality bit. It's really the only thing worth working for, yes? And along the way, I'd like to see a few more of the said jokes:

...when truth is unknowable, it’s up to us to create meaning...or, failing that, to at least come up with some good jokes...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 101:78

Love you and your path, they keep me on the straight and narrow (teehee)...
~c.

Ps Glad to hear your hand finally healed. ;-)

Karin Bartimole said...

Yes Dr Jay, as one who has been through a couple hand surgeries I would have been deeply questioning your ability to type so long and well! But you yoga types do have talents!
What a fabulous administration it would be that responds to such an honest and human approach of recommendation, since everyone can read between the lines of the less straight forward kind... As an experiment it would be fun to send some out and see if any schools (that weren't just hard up for students) responds positively!

Glad this finds you well healed :)

Eco Yogini said...

lol, really??? i always made sure to ask my profs if they could write me a "good-great" reference letter specifically. and I assumed they would say "no" if they were going to write something mediocre-bad.

i think they must have written "great" reference letters cuz I was accepted in 2/3 grad schools... :) sigh- i was such a fantastic student (*pats own back for a few minutes)

ok- narcissism over and done with, I'm glad that your broken hand was-is alright. But you know, you can't really hide that you're essentially a *good* person Dr. Jay :)

and cookies are yummy... here at the Lisa-Andrew apartment, we tend to bake a crapload and give them away.......although yummy cookies might not balance out the chance of getting a crazy stalker person at your front door.

Melissa said...

Ha! Great version of the Sutras. Do you have a book? ;-)

Silliyak said...

Ditto on the Sutra kudos...

the walking man said...

I'd send cookies but the ingredients are only for medical use and seeing as your hand has healed then it would come under a different law.

And oh yes...may I please have you write my next recommendation letter? The kind without the chocolate and hey read between the lines would work just fine.

Of what use again, is fat free cheese...isn't that called processed cheese food?

Bird said...

Only visiting randomly has it's uses; now I already know not to make a great big fuss over something painful that happened years ago... but then again, why not? I'll bake those cookies for ya, even though they'd be stale by the time they reached you so I may as well eat them all myself. I hope your hand healed well.

And damn it I think we should live in a world where what you just wrote would be a perfectly acceptable reference! I just remembered the report my physical education teacher gave me around about year three of High School; "___ is a pleasant pupil and has attended regularly throughout the year". And yes, they forgot to fill in my name there, they really did. :)

WR said...

Woke up this morning with that gnawing it's going to be a 'Crabby-All-Day' feeling. Then I read your post!

"...in the most dysfunctional families, the dog still gets along with everybody...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 46:72"

Once again you make me smile and at 6 AM PST that is not easy to do!

I applaud your ethical choices...passing the opportunities for home-made cookies can't have be easy. :-)

earthtoholly said...

Ahhh, now I remember your bike wreck, drjay. Just happens that that was the first post I ever commented on here...writing, "Great site you have..." not fully realizing what a great site you have! And I again laughed when you tangled with the chain...I'm so sorry! Thank you for the link and refresh, though.

Lucy loves the doggie sutra, but doesn't understand the dysfunctional families part...which is the point, I guess. Yay to Lucy and all her kind!

If I can get cookies past W's nose and out the door, they're yours!

earthtoholly said...

p.s. Beautiful snow pic there!

Kim said...

That might not be what the admissions committee is looking for, but it may be what they need. :)

Erik Donald France said...

My two cents on the lor: be generally straight. I did a five year gig as college counsellor and it seemed best for student and college or university. If the student needs guidance, suggest it after the usual bromides. Never had a student blocked, and usually similar ones were conditionally accepted -- after that it was up to them. The recipients will probably appreciate candor.

human being said...

wow!
your sutras are great!
tangible and profound...

like them more than many famous quotes... cheese and dogs and jokes help us learn much better...
:D