We'll never be as old as the hills
Revised Buddha. A pretty picture. An Existential Weather Report. Dig in.
Friends, it is I, Sean Sakamoto, your free life coach, reporting from the dry heat of the desert. No, that’s not a metaphor. Though if I’m being candid, my soul has felt more like a windswept wasteland than a thriving forest as of late.
But that’s all changed because I’m here in the actual desert and my soul is feeling watered and fecund by contrast.
I’m here with my son and we’re traveling slowly, seeing a few sights, eating sandwiches in hotel rooms and talking about life.
Before we left for this trip, I was feeling somewhat stuck in the grind. I was so desperate that I bought a Buddhist book to read on this trip. I’ve read a page a day, and yes, it is helpful. But it’s the same advice that all Buddhists give everywhere: 1. Be where you are. 2. Accept things. Of course, I need to be told that a thousand different ways and still I forget, so I’m not complaining.
It’s great advice and gladly applied. But it’s easy to practice acceptance when I’m on vacation with my beloved son. It’s simple to be present when I’m presently where I like to be. So that’s my revision to the princeling who found enlightenment: Go somewhere nice if you can, then focus on being there. Easy for me to say, I’m on vacation. Check in with me at the office. Nothing makes enlightenment vanish like that little notification sound on Microsoft Teams.
“Be where you are.” - Buddha
“But try to make where you are somewhere you want to be.” - Free Life Coach
And hiking every other day does wonders. In fact, exercise has been scientifically proven to be more effective for mental health than medication. The problem is that it’s impossible to get exercise when I need it most. I’m simply too depressed. It’s a factory-farmed chicken and an egg problem. If only exercise came in a pill. I’d take a bottle of ‘em.
On this trip I was reminded that I absolutely love Park Rangers. They are quirky, full of facts, and devoted to nature. They’re the clerics of the great outdoors, a priestly order in the church of nature. Sometimes I browse the listings of seasonal national parks jobs at usajobs.gov and imagine myself in one of those green uniforms, covered with patches, telling kids about the night sky or reminding hikers to pack water.
Back at the hotel, I always feel like I’m getting away with something when I make sandwiches out of deli meat and cheese from a grocery store, spread with a packet of mayo I pocketed somewhere. Today I added Frito Nacho Cheese from a can. Delicious after a hike and so much cheaper than a hotel restaurant burger.
The biggest kick is, of course, the geology. It reminds me that life is short and the only meaning it has is what I provide. We’ve got two numbers we keep our eyes on: the minutes left of our lives, and the amount in our bank accounts. Most of us shuffle them back and forth in an existential shell game. Where’s our nugget of happiness? Is it under this one? That one? Don’t ask me, I’m playing along like everybody else.
Here is an existential weather report.
I hope you’re able to be where you are and accept what is. And I hope the shell you pick has the nugget, just for today. And get a little exercise in while you can. I will if you will.
Until next time, I am, your partner on the treadmill, a speck of organic matter on a planet made of stone,
Your Free Life Coach,
Sean Sakamoto