MShadow's New Writeups

As Old As Man (idea)

2000-11-15T04:30:03Z

I sat next to a magician one time. He was small, humble - not at all what I'd become accustomed to in watching television and attending children's birthday parties, school lyceums, and walking through carnivals. His hair was not blown and styled like David Copperfield's, he did not have the confident grin of a Lance Burton, he did not wear the hip-hugging pants of a Siegfried or Roy. On the other hand, he also was not nerdy, unkempt, abrasive, or any of those things, and he did not precede his name with a flurry of adjectives, as in "The Great Samdini," or "The World-Famous Mystico of Monaco." In fact, when I asked him his name, he simply said, "Tony."

Tony looked about sixty, it seemed, although I suspect that he was much older. He had a demeanor of the ages about him, but other than that, he was a pretty ordinary guy. He reminded me of my wife's father -- a diminutive man, soft-spoken...one who kept his judgments to himself. He looked overshadowed in the…

The Stonecutter (idea)

2000-11-11T22:49:20Z

It was a hot, sweltering day, and the stonecutter balanced on his haunches, chisel and hammer in hand, sweat running streams down his back as he broke bits of rock away from the base of a wall of stone. It was hard, blistering work, and it felt like the sun had no mercy on him.

"How wonderful it must be to have the power of the sun," he thought to himself. "If I were the sun, no one could resist me! I wish I were the sun!"

In an instant, he found himself looking down on the earth, beating on it with his heat and energy. He was the sun, and he liked the way he touched everything and everyone below him without mercy. In his presence, people would be thirsty, they would be hot, and they would always know he was there.

Suddenly, he realized that there was something impeding him. He could not touch the earth with his power. He looked down and saw that a cloud had interposed itself between him and the earth.

"Hmm,"…

Maybe Yes, Maybe No (idea)

2000-11-11T22:20:30Z

There is a story of a farmer whose only horse ran away. That evening the neighbors gathered to commiserate with him since this was such bad luck. "Your farm will suffer, and you cannot plow," they said. "Surely this is a terrible thing to have happened to you."

He said, "Maybe yes, maybe no."

The next day the horse returned but brought with it six wild horses, and the neighbors came to congratulate him and exclaim at his good fortune. "You are richer than you were before!" they said. "Surely this has turned out to be a good thing for you, after all."

He said, "Maybe yes, maybe no."

And then, the following day, his son tried to saddle and ride one of the wild horses. He was thrown and broke his leg, and he couldn't work on the farm. Again the neighbors came to offer their sympathy for the incident. "There is more work than only you can handle, and you may be driven poor,"…

Eliminate your blind spots (idea)

2000-11-05T23:46:12Z

To eliminate blind spots when driving, set your mirrors this way:

Sitting in the driver's seat with your window closed, lean as far to your left as you can (with your head right up against the glass), then set your driver's side mirror so that you can just barely see the side of your car in the reflection. Next, lean to your right until your head is directly in the center of the car (in line with the rear view mirror). Set the passenger mirror so that you can barely see the right side of the car in the reflection.

What you will find when your mirrors are positioned this way is that you will have absolutely no blind spots as you drive. To verify this, look in your rear view mirror at a car as it approaches you in an adjacent lane on your left. Just as the car begins to leave your rear view mirror, you will see it entering your side view mirror. For a short period of time, you will actually see the car in both mirrors at once. As the car comes closer and begins to leave your side…

A classic Zen tale (idea)

2000-11-05T21:19:43Z

A young and earnest student approached his teacher and asked, "If I work very hard and be very diligent how long will it take for me to achieve mastery"

The Master thought about this for a moment, then said, "Ten years."

The student said, "Ten years! What if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast? How long then?"

The Master smiled and said, "Twenty years."

"Twenty years!," said the student. "What if I quadruple my efforts? How long then?"

The Master didn't even hesitate: "Forty years."

"But wait," said the disappointed student, "each time I tell you I'll work harder, you tell me it will take longer. Why is that?"

"Because," said the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

Religion, spirit, and essence (idea)

2000-11-03T23:40:45Z

The task has been put to me to explain myself. Where, exactly, do you stand? I am asked.

I'm not inclined to answer...not because of shame, fear, guilt, arrogance, or any other reason relating to reticence. I don't speak much about it for the same reason that I don't speak much about my breathing. I breathe, and beyond that there's simply not much to say. I'm also disinclined to answer simply because it's my belief that no answer can suffice.

The man next to me says he believes in God, but I find this shorthand comment lacking, because without hours of discourse (and most often that's not even sufficient), I don't know what it means when someone tells me he believes in God – and even then I can never get to the root of it. I can make the same statement as he, but until you understand what I mean when I say "God," it's meaningless.

So before embarking on our attempt to speak what can never really be spoken, let us understand that no matter how well the explanation,…