Kss of Death

Kss of death.

No, it's not a typo.

Yesterday, doing what old people do, I read the obituaries.

In reading the obits, I saw my name in there. Almost.

It was my first name and my last name, with one vowel's difference.

Close cull.

A brash with death.

Saved by a vowel.

Thank you [insert vocative comma here] Vanna White!

The Mysticism of Zoos

For me, last week visiting New York's Central Park Zoo for the first time in several years, as a wordsmith I was most struck by quotations sprinkled around on arbors, railings, and other borders. You might consider my infatuation with words in this case an infraction against Zen Buddhist clarity, of the sort noted in their old koan about looking at the moon versus looking at the moon's reflection in the water. Which somehow reminds me of today's Doubting Thomas Gospel.

No matter.

Here's a gorgeous sampling of what I mean:

The secret.
and the secret hidden deep in that.

-- Gary Snyder

Both William Wordsworth and T.S. Eliot often invoked the concept of the unnameable as a spiritual marker. Meister Eckhart talks of "the God beyond God," or words to that effect.

No wonder my son and his wife got married at the zoo.

Correct that: wonder, not no wonder.

Wonder, plenty of it.

Sabbaticals

Many companies are giving employees, sometimes even requiring employees to take, sabbaticals.

Paid sabbatical.

It has such a nice ring to it.

Especially the ka-ching part of it.

Prescription Abandonment

Prescription abandonment.

I've added it to my list over at Wordie.

Prescription abandonment is the (growing) practice of not picking up your prescription; for lack of funds, presumably.

I suppose it could also be lack of interest or lack of care, quite literally. Or even some kind of passive-aggressive silent-protest conspiracy.

(In real life, this is no joke. I'm just blogging, which is not Real Life.)

I have often abandoned prescriptions in my life; have abandoned those mandates prescribed by tradition or culture or habit. Ergo (it always sounds smarter to throw in a Latin phrase or two), I have performed prescription abandonment before its heyday. You would be doing prescription abandonment if I exhorted you to use the serial comma, but instead you shunned it.

When my writing was poor, I performed description abandonment.

When I have failed at enlisting support or consensus, I was guilty of conscription abandonment.

And so on.

You've got your own.

Age quod agis.

What would Kierkegaard do?

He had prescriptions a-plenty, with Danish, to go.

Snippet of News

Word is that vasectomies are on the rise, so to speak, owing to the poor economy, or at least what people perceive as poor economic prospects. People (well, men people) are snip-sniping the chance of having too many kids -- unless you are a putative Octopop, though it seems to be women who yield to the child-multiplying imperative more than men. I could be wrong. Well, wait. I am wrong (those last three words being the hardest words to utter in the English language). What about Thomas Frazier, the Michigan Inseminator guy who just got thrown in jail or is about to be thrown in jail for refusing to pay child support for 14 kids he allegedly fathered by 13 different women? He is unemployed. (Except for one notable part of him, obviously.) The quandary is: how much money can he make in jail? (Hmmm. Don't answer that.) Not that he sounds like a fella who is very enterprising in all things not carnal. Vasectomy for him? Would seem reasonable and prudent, even if at our expense. Maybe the state of Michigan should bail him out, so to speak, and "own" 80% of his body. An 80%?ownership stake? Naw! Even 10% would probably do the trick.

Zen Living

I saw this quote in a New York Times obituary for Andrea (Andy) Mead Lawrence, who died at 76. She had won two gold medals as a skier in the 1948 Winter Olympics.

"There are few times in our lives where we become the thing we're doing."

A true Zen observation.

The Scorpion Rules!

So does Prowler.

Even though I am old enough to qualify for a senior's discount at Denny's, I played laser tag yesterday. For the first time. Three games. I loved it. I'm sore today in spots. I was a maniac. My game pack had the name Scorpion on the front of the plastic electronic vest (if you have a vested interest in knowing this GROAN). And Prowler on another. And Erector on the third. (Well, I don't really remember the third name, but a guy can dream.) It was a blast. It did, however, give me pause to reflect. Does it, or games like it, encourage violence? No, I don't think so. Just the opposite, I suggest. I took delight in pulling the trigger at my wife and my daughter and all the teenagers running aroundf in the black-light environment. We laughed...especially at an adept "takeout." Admittedly, a few of the kids who humorously skulked in a corner and plugged away like snipers displayed a worrisome demeanor. I'l give you that. But overall my conclusion is that it no more encourages violence than Cowboys and Indians did for us in the Fifties. I suspect laser tag exorcises violence; gets it out of one's system in a harmless manner. Maybe scores of academics dispute this, but I'm just giving you one man's empirical conclusions.

Question: Has Cowboys and Indians become Agricultural Farmhands and Native American Warriors? Just asking.

Now go home and waterproof your child.