Over the weekend, I noticed that the city was quite festooned with red, due to two distinct events, with no doubt some overlapping adherents: the lunar new year, and the 49ers attempting to reach the Superbowl. Unfortunately the latter did not happen; I did not watch the match but followed some of the live updates, and it appears to have been a close-run thing.
On a slow start to Monday morning, I was also following two live updates – in even less overlapping fields – from the UK: first the final day of the football transfer window, which under current media conditions is a breathless succession of snippets of news and gossip. Alongside this was the publication of a report which detailed some of the many parties that happened at the Prime Minister’s residence during lockdown, and the parliamentary session which followed. More details are being withheld while the police investigate them.
The latter is certainly more momentous than the former, and may yet yield more momentous changes than a place in the league table (I could add some ‘qualifying for Europe’ puns here, I suppose).
Over the past few years I have found myself closely following a few stories live – the impeachment hearings, the insurrection at the Capitol a year ago, and been caught up in the adrenaline and the need to know the latest. Moment-by-moment awareness is encouraged, of course, and I find it important to stay well-informed, though I did, as I have probably written before) go four months at Tassajara without reading or hearing any news, and found it fundamentally unchanged once I picked up a newspaper again. Once sucked in, though, it is always hard to step out again.
In other news, we closed out our Suzuki class on Saturday. I had been awake since about 1:00am, as the rescue dog who lives next door got into one of its occasional bouts of whining and yelping, and having been woken up, I found it impossible to get back to sleep again. I felt fine during the class, since I was focusing intensely, but the rest of the day was a write-off. There seems to have been enough momentum from the class that we may well have a sequel in the summer. I just need to choose the right talks for us to study. I continue to listen to, and transcribe, a number of the talks, and find wonderful things in all of them.
Wishing you all a happy and auspious Year of the Tiger.
Shundo David Haye 