QUIPS, QUOTES AND QUANTUM LEAPS
Hello friends, and welcome to my revised and revived website, including this monthly “newsletter” – Quips, Quotes and Quantum Leaps. Who are we, and why are we here? What are this life and universe all about? You can explore these big existential questions with me through this newsletter, and hopefully have a few good laughs along the way.
Many of the pieces here are from my radio archives over the past 5 decades, starting way back on KSAN Jive95, to the morning show on KFOG, and “The Occasional Scoop” on KPFA. Also pulling out some columns from 30 plus years of “The Dharma and the Drama” in the journal, Inquiring Mind.
This month as we approach fall, I offer a reflection on Labor Day, a time for new beginnings that will hopefully bring an end to the interminable summer of our discontent. This call out to the workers of the world was originally broadcast on KFOG radio in 1990. As they say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Also featured is a radio theater piece on the condition of the “natural world” – a phrase we use as if we were somehow apart from the other life of this planet. In this piece I suggest we begin reading the Endangered Species List out loud in schools and churches. I’m still very much in favor of that!
The article “Please Identify Yourself” focuses on the ever elusive “self.” As the Buddha said, “True happiness can only be found by eliminating the false conceit of “I” or “self.” In fact, paying attention to other species can be considered part of our exploration of identity. Are you not also an earthling? An animal? A vertebrate? Are you a biped? Are you alive? You contain multitudes! Check it out.
And finally, getting to the real heart of the “matter,” a snippet from “How to be an Earthling” where we see our true nature through the emptiness of atoms.
So friends, stay in touch with any requests, complaints or revelations. Stay awake, stay connected, stay amazed, and as always, if you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own.
Wes
The first version of this piece was broadcast on KFOG-FM, Labor Day weekend, 1990.
Labor Day weekend marks the last sigh of summer, signaling the start of the busy season. That means it is time to get hyperactive again, which has a lot to do with the autumn chill that causes our metabolism to speed up, so then we begin acting out the legacy of our Paleolithic ancestors who had to do major hunting and gathering in order to survive the winter. So right after Labor Day we begin our annual shopping binge, the modern day version of hunting and gathering.
But Labor Day weekend is the designated time to celebrate the workers of this laboring world. So just lay down that plow, take off your heavy load, turn off your phone and park the mouse on its pad, and then pick up your Union flag and wave it high from the rooftop of your corporate headquarters and sing, “Solidarity forever….”
Recently I heard someone on the radio explaining the new crime of identity theft, and I immediately thought, Yes! Rob me, please! Take my identity, and leave the cash!
I can regard my entire dharma path as a matter of shifting identities, and it all started with me trying to run away from myself—the sentimental, histrionic drama of me-ness.
The Buddha says that the false conceit of “I” or “self” is the bane of our existence, and I was indeed relieved when I began to see through the various membranes of personal identity. But what really surprised and delighted me is what I saw on the other side. It turns out I am not who I thought I was—I’m much, much more than that.
For the most part, we each live in our own story…
ATOMIC COMIC
Endangered Species
One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, or of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
– Albert Einstein