Fantastic Friday

This is what the sabbatical is all about.

No I have not written anything yet today, but it is only 11 a.m. At 8 a.m. I met my friend Paula, who is working on a book of her own. She had asked me to read two chapters and comment on them. I did so, and we talked about them this morning at Starbucks. I believe my feedback was valuable. Paula sent me an interview with Ernest Hemingway published in the Paris Review, and she compared me to Hemingway's editor. That is a stretch. Nevertheless, by agreeing to help my friend with her book I ended up receiving an enlightening interview which will help me as a writer and a teacher of writing.

Then--by sheer coincidence--I ran into an old friend, Andy, who just happened to be getting coffee at Starbucks. Andy is a spiritual seeker who used to attend my Sangha but moved on about 10 years ago. After my great talk with Paula, I had a great talk with Andy. We compared notes about the spiritual paths we had been walking for he last 10 years and found many common threads. He told me about his teacher Adya Shanti, and the ancient Vedanta tradition he followed. Very interesting.

Somehow mornings like this will make me a better professor, adviser, writer, and a happier person.