It was the best of times it was the worst of times. That's this time right now. November 17, 2020, during covid-19, quarantine, Biden's triumphiant victory, and 244,000 dead Americans. The shit done hit the fan. We have a president who lost the election but won't concede even though its been two weeks since he lost. The Republicans don't want to relinquish Trump and disavow him as a muy malo demagogue that has hurt the party and the country. It can't get much worse.
However, one of the things one learns in Zen is that you don't need zen when things are going well. You need zen when things are going bad. What does that mean? It means that you train in the art of zen [relaxing, breathing, meditation, thinking clearly, not acting and overreacting to every little disturbance in your day, showing care and love, seeing the love in the universe around you] you must realize that you are doing it because you'll need it for the rainy days. The hard days where you feel like picking a fight with your friend or spouse, where you yell at your coworkers or berate them for various reasons, or more in my case, when a customer at your job is estupido!
This is the time where you should learn about things like zen. Do you have faith? Do you believe in being and nothingness? Sein und Zeit [being and time]. That's okay to be an existentialist or an athiest, but realize that the people who go for Occam's Razor are very happy. So whatever it is you do or believe in, do it well.
Thing are going surprisingly well for me at this late stage in the pandemic:
I started playing the piano. I started learning Spanish. I started learning words and phrases in other languages like French, Italian, German, Chinese, and Japanese. I've lost a little more weight. I've found the correct amounts of food intake I need each day, don't overeat anymore, and have found good success in losing weight as a result. My friendships are stronger than ever. My coworkers like me. My family bonds are strong. Other than the fact that I'm working retail during the world's biggest pandemic, my life, beau rêve [a beautiful dream].
I have my bad days like anyone else but 99% of my days are so good that there's not much I regret, stress about, or am deeply angered about. Although this is one of the worst times in American history, la vita è fottutamente bella [life is fucking good].
I'm still working on myself as a person, trying to better myself through educating myself via books, music, language, work, and relationship improvement ability, and what I've been doing is very pleasing, especially the guitar and piano playing. I even started singing songs. And I've been playing a lot more songs straight the whole way through rather than taking meandering guitar solos. If the bars ever open up again for open mics, I'll be a musician, a guitar player, singer, that's improved 100% from my previous live rock and jazz music performance skills. I can play and sing any song.
I'm also still working on my writing, hence this blog tonight. If there's any one last bit of energía positiva y buena voluntad [positive energy and goodwill], I would say now is the time to learn, relax, work on all the things you've ever wanted to work on, and totally zen out.
aprovecha todo tu potencial
Feliz día de acción de gracias
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