I turn 55 later this year—absolutely in my mid-50s. Ever since I turned 34 back in 2003, I've wanted to have an "I Outlived Jesus" party. By tradition, Jesus didn't make it beyond 33. But in reading up on Dōgen Zenji* and his Sōtō Zen school, I discovered that Dōgen died at age 53 because of some terminal illness, so I've outlived Dōgen, too. I should celebrate these milestones before I'm unable to because there ain't no way I'm outliving myself. One day, I'll be a drooling, senile old fart, at which point it'll be too late to have such a party.
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*Dōgen is 道元 in Chinese; the Korean pronunciation would be Do-weon (길 도, 으뜸 원, "Tao source," and rhyming roughly with "no fun," an apt descriptor for many monastics).
"One day, I'll be a drooling, senile old fart"
ReplyDeleteI resemble that remark!