miscellaneous

1. The other night I had a dream where I argued on religion and superstition. Naturally, I forgot all but the conclusion of the argument: A strictly religious person is similar to a highly superstitious person in that neither is capable of accepting that truth has more than one facet. I woke up reciting this to K thinking that I was brilliant.

2. My mom said on the phone the other day that she was helping a monk raising $300,000 to build a house. She asked me if I wanted to donate. I declined because I thought it was excessive. This monk was 30 years of age and of sound body and mind. Even without the house, he always had somewhere to sleep and practise buddhism. Naturally, I kept my thoughts to myself as my mom would not appreciate it. Sensing her disappointment, I invited her to tell me why he needed the house. "Even a buddha made of mud needs to sit in a grand temple, " she said emphatically, "let alone a real buddha."

3. We recently acquired three goldfish, partly for the purpose of our cat's amusement. But it soon turned out that she was more interested in drinking from the pond, which we disprove of. In addition, she immediately grew fond of drinking from a long cylindric vase that featured a banala lily.