I was tapped by my good friend Barry over at Illusory Flowers in an Empty Sky (formerly The Urban Monk) for an “Honest Scrap Award.”
“When one attains this auspicious recognition, one is supposed to: write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, choose a minimum of seven blogs you find brilliant, list at least ten honest things about yourself.”
My favorite blogs include, of course Illusory Flowers, although I am honest enough to say I liked the previous title better, in the service of brevity and simplicity. Barry is smart, funny, not afraid to post pics of his own ass. I love that. The not afraid part, although the ass isn’t bad and I hope his wonderful wife, Amy, will forgive me for saying so. Amy writes The Edges of the Day which is quite lovely.
My dear friend Andy is a constant window into other worlds thanks to her blog Radical Seeks Enlightenment. I hope to catch her sometime this summer while she is in Chicago, which is relatively closer to Nebraska than her former home on an isolated mountain in Vermont.
I truly enjoy Colin Beavan over at No Impact Man and am greatly looking forward to the release of the documentary about the No Impact Project. His dedication to living sustainably is truly a thing of beauty and his posts on living happier and healthier always inspire me.
By way of environmentalists, the great Joe Romm at Climate Progress is a constant source for my own columns. I don’t know what I’d do without him and his in-depth understanding of science, politics, and rhetoric.
In Limine by my friend Sean in Denver always wakes me up and reminds me my body is more than just a vehicle in which I live. I would love to see more from him.
Rounding out the list is Rev. Danny Fisher in California who keeps me up to date on the scuttlebutt in amazing Buddhist blogosphere, with wonderful insights of his own.
Ten honest things about me:
1) I believe privacy applies to what happens in the toilet and nowhere else. If you wouldn’t do it with other people looking, it’s probably not a good idea. Not wanting anyone to know is just a product of fear and ego, no matter what it’s about. I guess that’s where all this “honesty” Barry likes comes from.
2) I don’t hate anyone, but I do have the overwhelming urge to smack people every once in a while.
3) I am full of fear, ego, loneliness, desire, and suffering.
4) I quote fictional characters.
5) I am combative but not competitive.
6) I never weigh the likelihood of success against the worthiness of the cause. This is why, even though I believe the world is in a climate change/environmental catastrophe/overconsumption nose dive we won’t pull out of in time, I continue working to do just that.
7) I like most animals better than I like most people. I honestly believe there are no bad dogs. I think it is a cat’s prerogative to bite whomever it pleases. And I know horses are smarter than I am.
8) I love everyone, even the scary, evil people.
9) I love prime rib. (Bad vegetarian! Down girl!)
10) If there is a grape vine, I am a string bean. I have a difficult time relating to people, picking up on sarcasm, reading body language, understanding moods, reading between the lines, and indentifying lies. As a result I don’t believe things can be implicit or assumed, but must be said strait up.
Pass it on.
2 comments:
Good post and I will pass it on. I can really relate to #1, 2 and 7. My ego and desire are bigger problems than fear, loneliness (loneliness is the least cause of suffering, I like being alone just have to make sure I don’t isolate which is dangerous for me). The reason I like to read your blog is because of your honesty, whether it is your struggles, politics, social commentary or Dharma practice there is usually something to reflect on, which helps me grow.
I have just started reading Dharma Punx. I am in the middle of a book by Kevin Griffin about Buddhism and the 12 steps of recovery, Kevin has given me the answer to my conflict between Buddhism and a Higher Power and what a sweet relief that is, plus he has given me some other insights into how the Dharma and recovery tie in, some I had figured out but it is nice to know my thinking was sound. I bought Dharma Punx a couple of months ago for a friend in recovery or my daughter to read, the friend started slamming junk again and disappeared and my daughter is too caught up in her boyfriend to take time out to read, so the book was just sitting on the shelve next in line to read. I have a guy I have been working with who is having a bit of a struggle with the craving to smoke weed, he doesn’t crave booze often but weed is tough for him, the only thing that keeps him clean is knowing he will spend hard time if his UA is dirty, the guy is active in going to meetings, calling myself or some else in recovery, we have been over how drugs and alcohol have extreme power over addicts and alcoholics and he understands and accept this but still something is missing. In thinking about all this the thought dawned on me to have him read Punx instead of recovery literature, usually we stick to recovery literature for the first 6 or so months so your head doesn’t get filled up with a bunch of non-essential stuff/mental masturbation books. I have read about ¼ of Punx and think it may help him out, the guy is a hard core metal head which isn’t that far off from punk, he grew up in Cal, dropped out of school, spent time in jails and juvenile institutions, started banging Meth in his teens, along with lots of weed and cheap booze, so there is enough similarities with Noah that maybe Noah’s book will give him something easier to relate to. Sometime the battle in surrendering to our powerlessness over drugs and alcohol is finding someone we can identify with, we know the shit is killing us but have a hard time connecting with others 100%, it is important to get past the feeling of aloneness, some of us myself included found it easier than others. Anyway since you read the book I thought I would let you in on how it maybe of service to someone who is struggling to find their own path. I am acting on faith here, I am really enjoying the book myself, even though his life style and mine are totally opposite except for reasons we drank and used, emotions run parallel.
Peace
Scott
You are really honest! Chapeau!
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