Asian writers and poets are so much wiser, in my opinion, than western writers and poets because they are willing to be foolish. O foole, ye art wise! What kinds of fools subscribe to philosophies like wabi/sabi? Who would spend a lifetime perfecting the seventeen syllables of haiku? Or the strict freedom of zen? Who insists on thinking rocks and trees and birds and crickets have feelings and thoughts and souls? Those Asians...and my brothers the Sioux! Lakota Wabi/Sabi! Somebody make a t-shirt!

We, in our academic wisdom, consider this soulfulness a "pathetic fallacy." I want to start a lit jrnl called just that. Join me! The Pathetic Fallacy, Vol. I No. 1. Cats don't have feelings! Buffalo don't think! Mountains and aspens and beavers and spiders and clouds and rivers don't think about God! They're just scientific robots working out their genetic or geological encoding. Tick, tick, tick. Mechanical world.

Dig this. It's a passage by Osho. What a fool! He's as silly as Issa and my jolly master Onitsura! He's as ridiculous as Chuy Christ! It's pathetic! Embrace it:

"Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars...and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole of existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers--for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are." --Osho

Anything that makes me love this world, and my brief moment upon it, is wise and holy.

L

# posted by Luis @ 4:28 PM