Human Victory Cigar

In recent days, my attention’s been strongly drawn to transitions. Maybe it’s because the new school year just began. Maybe because my girlfriend and I broke up a couple of months ago. Maybe because the swirling snow stinging my eyes yesterday – a record for the area’s earliest snowfall – brought home the change of seasons. I don’t know. But I’m sitting here writing this at Metro Airport, where I am waiting so see if I get on a flight for which I’m on standby.

It’s not that it matters too much whether I get on the flight or not. (Continued)

A few years ago, I was in Central America leading a very small group of Michigan alumni on a tour of Mayan ruins. These folks were mostly retirees, some even in their 80s. Our trip took us to Belize at one point, where we stayed in some beautiful cottages on Chaa Creek in the middle of the rainforest. On one day, a trip was scheduled with a local company to visit the ruins at Caracol, one of the largest complexes of Mayan ruins in the world and also one that has been most sensitively excavated and preserved. Unfortunately, several us came down with a bug the day before this tour and found ourselves barely able to get out of bed on the morning we were to set out for the site. The oldest, a widow from Birmingham named Betty Paige (!) – 82 years old – wasn’t feeling so well, but was so looking forward to this trip that she bucked up and got into the van with the local guide. I mostly hung around the cottages, sipping juices to rehydrate and trying various rainforest remedies to calm my suddenly spastic colon. As is common in the area, storms moved through as the day wore on. Late in the afternoon, the van pulled up and, feeling somewhat better, I went to greet Betty as she emerged. “So, Betty, how was it?” I asked. (Continued)

Dharma is a Sanskrit word that originally just meant “Natural Law” or “Reality.” However, as adopted in various religious and spiritual contexts, dharma has also come to mean something like the “way of higher truth,” as well as “teaching,” “law” or “duty”. In Zen Buddhism, the dharma refers to the way things are, and also to teachings of the Buddha and the ethical and spiritual path that a buddhist follows.

Now, apart from the fact that dharma rhymes with karma and that Culture Club paired karma and chameleon together in a catchy tune of the 1980s, there’s nothing in the meaning of “dharma” that would make it a likely partner for the word “chameleon.” After all, the chameleon is practically the symbol of pragmatic change dictated by nothing other than the threats and resources of the moment. (Continued)