Okay, she's in surgery.

[icarus]

wildernessguru's mom went into surgery at 9am this morning. *takes deep breath and holds it, yes, for four hours* *turns purple*

He's home today with fuzzhead today. WG's not Buddhist, but there's one mantra he likes, so he's doing that. Even if people aren't spiritual, there's something about having something you can do while you hope.

I'm calm, but WG is quite stressed and frightened, though he's outwardly calm. It hits you at a gut level when it's your parents. All your life, from the time you were tiny, you depend on them. You might not even get along later, but they're the center of your life in many ways. When something happens to them -- you're not ready for it. You can't be ready for it. It hits you at a visceral level that's surprising. In WG's case, he and his mom have always been close, and he has the extra weight of guilt because he's missed the last few Christmas's.

She's going to be all right I think, but that doesn't make this waiting any easier for him.

I do hope I didn't offend anyone with my last Snape-post (and hopefully it's clear that I think 's essay is fascinating and insightful). Because she's brilliant.

It's just rather intense at home at the moment.

P.S. There will probably be a lot of Buddhist stuff in my journal for a while. It's not prostyletizing, just a major part of my life (my whole family's practicing Buddhists). I'm pretty serious about it. I've stood outside the capital building with Richard Gere protesting China's occupation of Tibet; have done more retreats than I can easily count; have been in private teachings with the H. H. the Dalai Lama on several occasions, before people really knew who he was; have studied Vinaya, Abhidharma, Madhyamika, Vajrayana, etc., and some teachers have even wasted Mahamudra teachings on me; have constructed monasteries, donated thousands of dollars, learned some Tibetan... okay, you get the picture. I left my last fandom largely because of the conservative (re: obnoxious) Christian element in the Tolkien crowd.

I believe that most spiritual people (Buddhist and Christian) think they're more spiritual than they are -- that is to say, they believe their path is largely about what other people ought to be doing and spend their time selling their beliefs to others and judging what others do or don't do. Which usually means that regular, kind people who don't do that crap are way ahead. So. I hang out mostly with the non-religious because I like them more. *laughs*

Comments

[cordelia_v]

Hmm. A digression on the subject of religious music might bore others. (but I'm always up for it. If you want to IM me about this to chat (and distract yourself while you wait---I'm all for saving your manicure), my AOL IM is CordeliaV; but I'll only be online for 30 more minutes (until 6 p.m., East Coast time).

Opus Dei is a small but very powerful organization within the Church. It includes both high-level clergy and powerful conservative lay Catholics. They are about as far right as one can get within the Church (before you go off to the real fringe, like Mel Brooks, who have essentially left Catholicism in order to make up their own odd right-wing fundamentalist version of Catholicism).

Opus Dei is the far conservative Catholic establishment. They back the current pope completely, and of course they'd love to drive out left-wing feminist Catholics like myself. They don't see us as "real" Catholics.

Enough rant. Sorry. I should think of more cheerful topics to distract you. Names of those performers who have adapted Tibetian music to Gregorian-like chants (how amusing), please?