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Weekend Butler: “Things change.” Play ball! A dead dog in a Hermès bag on the Champs-Élysées. A timely movie. A funny kid. A good use of zucchini. And more.
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Published: Mar 23, 2023
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Weekend
“NOT ALWAYS SO… THINGS CHANGE”
The first thing that fascinated me about Shunryu Suzuki — the monk who’s mostly responsible for bringing Zen to America — was his response when he was asked to summarize Buddhism in a sentence.
The audience laughed at the impossibility of that challenge.
Suzuki had a ready answer.
“Easy,” he said. “Everything changes.”
Early in January, on the last day of a Jamaican vacation, I slipped on wet tile in the shower and came home with a 2” hairline ankle fracture as a souvenir. For the last two-and-a-half months, I’ve been wearing a “boot” that goes up to my knee — 24 hours a day. With luck, it comes off in early April.
Things change? Just a lot. Most days, I don’t leave my apartment. Most of the time, that’s not tragic. For one thing, humans adapt. We “get used” to inconvenience. The tragedies we feared would kill us don’t kill us. And there are unanticipated benefits. Mine is that I’ve written more. And the writing is paying off. What’s been lost, what’s been gained? I don’t keep score.
What I can do is put my attention on this moment. On this sentence, this word. If I look ahead, I can spin into sadness and have to fight my way out — usually by getting back to work. My reading in Buddhism tells me, over and over, that paying attention to the moment solves many problems. Indeed, it is a direct path to actually being alive.
Lesson learned?I hope not to forget it when the boot is retired. And I hope that you have found, by conviction or life experience, your way to the core of Thich Nhat Hahn’s message: “Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.”
PLAY BALL!
The Major League baseball season starts next week. It’s going to be a faster game — there will be a pitch clock, expected to shorten games by 25 minutes. Good idea. But if you’ve ever played ball – hardball or softball, male or female —your first memories are indelible. The novels of John Tunis –— which go further back — are likely to thrill you.
John R. Tunis (1889-1975) is not a name to conjure with these days, but in his time, he was revered as “the ‘inventor’ of the modern sports story.” He surely had the credentials: in the late 1920s, he covered sports for a New York newspaper, then for The New Yorker. And then he wrote fiction, starting with “The Kid from Tomkinsville,” published in 1940. He thought it was a book for adults. His publisher thought it was for young readers. His publisher prevailed, which is how John Tunis became the leading writer of teen sports stories and, in a sense, the father of Young Adult fiction.
I pushed these books on my stepson when he was breaking in his first glove. Over the decades I’ve given them to kids — boys and girls — who love baseball. And I am here to tell you: The baseball novels of John R. Tunis are not only the best sports fiction for 10-to14 year-olds ever written, they’re among the best sports fiction — period.
WEEKEND MOVIE
This. Of course. Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards. To stream it on Amazon Prime, click here.
HOW MUCH IS A DEAD DOG IN A HERMÈS BAG?
Our friends’ granddaughter is doing a gap year in Paris. Her boyfriend, his parents and their dog came to visit. They were strolling the Champs-Élysées when the dog fell over dead. What to do with a dead dog on the Champs-Élysées? One of the group popped into the nearest chic shop and asked for a bag they could put the body into. Whew! This called for a drink, so they stopped at a nearby outdoor cafe, set the store’s chic bag down and ordered a couple of stiff ones. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a moped comes racing by, snatches the bag and disappears, neatly solving the problem: what do you with a dog’s corpse in a foreign land?
KIDS!
A father passing by his son’s bedroom noticed the room was unusually clean. He saw an envelope propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed, ‘Dad’. With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter, with trembling hands.
Dear, Dad. It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend, because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mum and you.
I’ve been finding real passion with Stacy. She is so nice, but I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercing’s, tattoos, her tight Motorcycle clothes, and because she is so much older than I am.
But it’s not only the passion, Dad. She’s pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods, and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.
Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn’t really hurt anyone. We’ll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want.
In the meantime, we’ll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so that Stacy can get better. She sure deserves it!
Don’t worry Dad, I’m 15, and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I’m sure we’ll be back to visit so you can get to know your many grandchildren.
Love, your son, Josh
P.S . Dad, none of the above is true. I’m over at Jason’s house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the school report that’s on the kitchen table. Call when it is safe for me to come home.
SO SAY THEIR NAMES
Laurie Anderson reveals a side of Lou Reed that he kept private:
Lou taught me a lot about love, and I found out what it is to love and to be completely loved in return. This will be a part of me for the rest of my life. It’s also something that changes you forever to have the love of your life die in your arms. When Lou died in mine, I watched as he did tai chi forms with his hands. And I watched the look of joy and surprise that came over his face as he died. I became less afraid. One more thing he taught me.
Lou crosses my mind every hour. After a year and a half I’m still waiting for him to call and sometimes he actually does call and suddenly I remember one of his phrases or some random words or songs we made up. And I’m reminded also of the three rules we came up with – rules to live by. I’m going to tell you what they are because they come in really handy, because things happen so fast it’s good to have a few catchwords to fall back on when there’s not enough time to think.
The first one is don’t be afraid of anyone. And second is get a really good bullshit detector and learn how to use it. Third is be really really tender.
For people whose partner has died it’s a great shock. You’re propelled into a magic world where you finally understand many things that were complete mysteries up to that point. Finally I saw how people turn into light and turn into music and eventually into other people. And how fluid the bones really are. They say you die three times. First when your heart stops. Second is when you’re buried or cremated. And third is the last time someone says your name.
WEEKEND RECIPE
Warm Zucchini Salad
Zucchini is more than a ubiquitous plant that grows out of control in summer. Along with other summer squashes like yellow crookneck and pattypan, it’s a symbol of Mediterranean cooking. The tender textures and light flavors are inextricably linked to summer and sun.
Makes four servings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: eight minutes
2 tbs. olive oil
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 lb. zucchini and other summer squashes, cut into wedges
Pinch crushed red-pepper flakes
Pinch dried oregano
Pinch dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup fava or any shell beans, blanched, peeled, and rinsed
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
Handful fresh basil, roughly chopped
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, zucchini, red-pepper flakes, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Cook until the zucchini is tender, about five minutes.
Add the favas, goat cheese, and basil. Toss and serve warm. (Also delicious cooled.)
