MAYBE IT IS and MAYBE IT ISN'T

Out of feudal Japan comes one of my favorite stories about preconception and attachment to outcome. I am posting this because I just received an email from my son who "put me on the spot" about what I have learned as a result of being on this "walkabout" now entering the 4th month.

A farmer and his son were plowing the fields with an Ox. The boy would lead the ox while the father would pick up rocks or plant seeds. They awoke one morning to find their ox had died. The farmer walked into town to consult with the wisest man in the village over what he should do. After telling his story he said "This is the worst thing that could ever happen" The wise man replied, "Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't." The farmer stormed off saying under his breath "This guy is an idiot.'

When he arrived back at the farm he spotted a big horse standing in his field. He was able to capture the horse, the son rode on his back, and he plowed the field faster and more efficiently than ever before. The farmer went back to town to see the wise man and tell him the good news. "This is the best thing that could ever happen." The wise man said in reply "Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't." The farmer again walked off muttering.."This guy is missing the point."

On his return to the farm, he saw his son lying on the ground next to the horse. The boy was in obvious pain. As he got closer, he saw the boy had fallen off the horse and broken his leg. His farming was over for a while until he healed. Naturally, as was the custom, he went to share this with the wise man in the village. The farmer said "This is the worst thing that could happen. " Predictably the wise man replied "Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. " The farmer could not hold his tongue anymore and told the wise man that "this time" there was no way that this was not the worst thing that could happen and maybe he's not so wise after all. When he got back to the farm to sit with the young man and tend his broken leg he saw a cloud of dust in the distance and heard the sound of a hundred horses. A warlord and his army were riding through the countryside conscripting young men to fight and most like die in battle. When the warrior saw the young man lying there with a broken leg, he just rode on to the next farm and left the son with his father where he would live to farm again.

So, next time "the worst thing that could ever happen" happens, or you even THINK that a certain event is "the worst thing" just say to yourself, "Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. "

Let that be a lesson to you.

BURGERS and BOOKS

One of our favorite restaurants on Nantucket is Brotherhood of Thieves on Broad Street. They have a fantastic hamburger, and all sorts of beers on tap. There is a new and modern upstairs dining room, an old and historic downstairs, and an outside seating area too. If we have to wait we go into the shop right next door... the Nantucket Bookworks. There are other book shops on the island but this one has a special something, a quirky collection of things I like, because of my own quirkiness, and a nice children's section. The entire ambiance reminds me of another of my favorite book stores, the Main Book Shop in Aspen, Colorado.

Tonight after a casual dinner upstairs in the bright part of Brotherhood with the full height ceiling and less noise, we strolled by the Nantucket Bookworks and bought three books. Two of them were children's mystery stories based in Nantucket...gifts for some visiting young ladies. The third one was entitled "Thoreau and the Art of Life." I am sure you are all familiar with his work, his most famous is Walden and another favorite of mine is an essay "On Civil Disobedience." "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." Remember this as you turn over your freedom to the government in exchange for imaginary security.

COLD DAY in AUGUST

We have been in Nantucket since the beginning of June. The weather has been fantastic, except for that one week excursion into HELL in July when everyone on the island stormed the Marine Home Center, the place where fairness prevails, to get their Air Conditioners. These past two days we have gone the other way into cold and rainy. If the whole summer were like this I would demand a refund but this New England Sunshine is supposed to last only a few days. I hear Seattle is like this. No wonder they drink a gallon of coffee a day to ward off depression. If Sarasota got this weather for a few days during August, maybe the plants would survive.

My MacBookPro laptop went tits-up on me yesterday. It had given me some warnings and I backed up my business files to thumb drives (no eternal hard drive with me here) before the screen tuned into a Lava Lamp. White-blue-green-black... the local computer store has a MAC certified technician who can get to it in 3 days for $50 to see what's wrong with it. Then they get a part shipped, then they fix it at $100 an hour, usually one hour, and deduct the initial diagnostic 1/2 hour charge. Not unreasonable especially for this island where Rx drug prices are doubled, toilet paper is sold by the square, and gas is $4 a gallon. In the mean time, after consulting with my friend, Stan, who has all the toys, I ordered an iPAD, and look forward to expanding my APPLE stable of electronic gizmos. I already have the iPhone 3G, Airport wireless router, and the MacBook laptop (as does the Kitty only hers is pristine white and mine is milled aluminum).

For a small island, apparently you can get stuff fixed if you need to. My crown fell off my tooth and I got it glued back on within 24 hours by a nice dentist...$100. My computer is on the fritz...$100. I needed a printer...you guessed it...$100. Dinner for two with a glass of wine, $100. I feel like Rainman where the answer to every question is always $100.

A man's work is never done

SHUTTER ISLAND

As far as I am concerned, a more fitting title would have exchanged the U for an I. The movie poster plot: Drama set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island. The real plot: WTF? I think Leonardo must be going through some major psychotherapy and his analyst has given him homework assignments..."go out and star in some movies where nobody in the theater knows what's going on and half of them don't care." This is the second DeCaprio movie in as many weeks where I wished I had watched "The Cat from Outer Space" instead. The previous one was "Inception" which was far worse and we walked out of it. We saw Sh*tter Island in our living room so there was nowhere to go. There was NO suspense, the location was dismal, and the scary parts weren't scary. If you look at it on another level, the back and forth psychodrama, it was thin. I won't spoil it for you in case you want to watch it (why?) but it is about things that did happen or didn't happen, are real or aren't real... it was almost like watching an Obama speech.

PARKING SPACE BINGO

There are cars and trucks of all sizes here on the island but the parking spaces only come in two sizes, small and smaller. Hence, these two cars are popular here. Their differences are legion. The JEEP is rough, tough, crude, bouncy and drafty. It also goes anywhere and would NEVER get it's front bumper ripped off when you pull into a curb too far or have to pull up on a curb to let another car pass on an extremely narrow street (typical). The MINI has the same interior room as the Jeep, is quiet, water tight, and 100% BMW. You have to be careful where you tread because there are potholes that could swallow you up, the dirt roads near the beaches can have "lakes" in them, and some of the curbs are the height of your front grill. BOTh these vehicles are about the same length so there are many more parking spaces that become available to you.

In a perfect world, I would make this post and friends and followers would comment and tell me why they prefer one of these cars over the other.

NEVER on SUNDAY

Some time ago, the Catholic Church decided to get back to it's Jewish roots and allow its members to attend church on Saturday. Our local Catholic church is St Mary's in downtown Nantucket, right on Federal Street next to the post office. It just seems to work out that the Kitty finds it more convenient to go to mass on Saturday.

The service was over at 6pm and I was outside waiting for her to come out after presumably praying for her heathen husband. It is a clear day but it was starting to get dark...a big difference from our days in June when we arrived here. The changing of the seasons is just around the corner. Up here in winter, all the leaves fall off the trees and freezing weather sets in until spring. Back where I come from, in Sarasota, the weather can still be hot and sweaty in December but then all of a sudden we get 32 degree weather for a week and it kills your palm trees. At least the ones that were not knocked down by the hurricane.

Today was a day like so many others on the island, filled with sweet nothings. I started the day at the Wharf Rat Club where I hung with my homeys for an hour or two. It is something like what I do back in Sarasota with Stan and Jimmy at the mall, only there we are Mall Rats rather than Wharf Rats. The babies had a dance class at the Atheneum (library). We went to see them and I took a lot of photos and videos. The Kitty and I went to Something Natural, one of our favorite places to eat and got a HUGE Turkey-Swiss-Veggie Sandwich on oatmeal bread which we shared and still had some left over. I dropped her off downtown and she did some retail therapy...I took a nap as is my custom. Then, as I wrote above, we walked into town (about ten minutes) she went to pray and I had a nice cup of Hazelnut coffee on Main street.

We are back home now and had a very nice dinner she made with chicken, spicy sauce, three colors of peppers, tomatoes accompanied by a tall glass of Pinot Grigio. Mmmm. We picked up a couple of movies and probably will watch Shutter Island tonight. The babies' nanny, Amy Mac, says that we will love it.... not a slasher film but rather very Alfred Hitchcock. Will report on it tomorrow. I got some positive feedback on my blog today, two e-mails and a very special call from Sarasota from an old friend.