Chapter 86 — LiveStreaming
The Curve of Time, Chapter 86 —— LiveStreaming, in which meditation practice meets live-streaming.
Followed by quick reflections on the ripples our actions set in motion.
Listen to full episode :
— 86 —
LiveStreaming
A couple of days earlier, Amara affixed his video camera to a tripod in the corner of his studio. He ran the connecting cable to his computer and logged in to his Youtube account.
He looked up and acknowledged Molly Witherspoon as she entered the studio with an excited clap of his hands, rubbing them together in almost involuntary delight. “It’s not every group of attendees that is happy with me live-streaming our sessions.” He pressed the record button on the camera and checked the picture on his computer; yes, they were all gathering. He slipped headphones over his bald pate and plugged the other end into the audio outlet. There was sound.
He removed the headphones again, and moved in front of the camera. Once seated, he spoke into the lens. “I’m so glad we can share this event with everyone out there.”
Behind Amara, Zeno laid out his mat and seated himself.
∞
Around the world thousands of disciples watched the live stream, many of them in a semi-somnambulant state. They were people in the perfect psychological space to absorb the unexpected ancillary lesson that Zeno was about to contribute.
Well, that was chapter 86, Friends, short, but significant!
I mean, you knew something really bad was going to happen, but was this what you were expecting?
It kind of reminds me of the saying an old writing partner of mine used to love: “no good deed goes unpunished”. It probably won’t surprise you that I find that sentiment a little bleak, but there have been times in my life when I’ve felt its pull. You know, those times when something “unfair” seems to go wrong.
The thing is, at those times I pinch myself and remind myself how my life has been such a sequence of unbelievably fortunate happenstances, so that even with the worst of experiences thrown on top, it still feels, if anything, unfairly fortunate.
I was reminded of this again the other weekend, when we hosted, up in Ojai for the day, thirty kids from BEAM——the math program I’ve talked about before that gives a hand to underprivileged kids. Happily, the knee surgery I had a couple of weeks earlier healed so well that I was able to lead a scramble up the river rocks in our creek. It was the perfect activity for a hot summer’s day, and a reminder that even if my mind and body have been at odds, of late, they are back on the same team again.
Beyond the creek hike, I had the students try identifying the various fruit trees we’ve been growing. And fortuitously, our fig tree is in it’s second round of fruiting, so we were even able to share fresh figs, directly from the tree. Many of kids, maybe eighty or ninety percent, hadn’t ever tried a fig before, and no, they weren’t all fans, but I was delighted that a couple of them were excited enough to want to take extras home to share with their families.
Best of all, though, was that in prepping some new mathematical presentations for the students (about a third of the kids were repeats after having enjoyed last year so much), I rediscovered of an old mathematical Exploration that I put together many years ago. The contents revolved around different types of infinity, and the structure of the narrative tickled me so, that I think I might try writing it up as a kids picture book when I have a moment to spare. Quite unlike my old writing partner’s sentiment, it feels a bit like I might be the beneficiary of my own effort to put something worthwhile out into the world!
In any event …
Until next week, be kind to someone and keep an eye out for the ripples of joy you’ve seeded.
Cheerio
Rufus
PS. If you think of someone who might enjoy joining us on this experiment, please forward them this email. And if you are one of those someone’s and you’d like to read more
