Local Warming

OK, so with the exception of Northmoon, y’all don’t want to talk about what you’re reading (the cold truth, probably, is that most of you didn’t make it to the end of the last lengthy post). Too full of nog, or Hanukkah yummies, or general holiday madness, I understand.

So let’s up the ante: can I interest you in an ecotopian graphic novel created by Aaron Birk, described as “equal parts Buddhist, ecologist and unrelenting optimist,” who laughs that in his work, “There's soil, there's water, there's Mongolian Buddhist superheroes”? (thx for the tip, Worst Horse!)

Read all about The Pollinator’s Corridor here, complete with serialized panels.

Elsewhere, I see that it’s pretty chilly in much of the States, and my family in New England will be having quite the White Christmas. No need to mention how it is here. One of my kitties, Nita, recalling how she fared one winter on the Mongolian streets...

...spends every morning post-breakfast, but pre-sunbeams, snugged right up – obviously, quite contentedly – to the kitchen radiator:

Amazing the difference a little TLC can make, eh?

I hope those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are similarly warm and happy, and for those of you south of the equator...may your sunscreen be the proper SPF, or something.

Hey, I’m curious: what do those of you DODR readers who are “convert Buddhists” do at Christian/Jewish holiday time?

Comments

[Christian]

The recent photo of Nita is very cute.

I am not a convert Buddhist but Christmas was a family gathering around an endless evening meal, tree decoration, mutual exchange of gifts and congratulations. Kind of a cultural Christmas, more than a Christian one, but this is very common in France. In Spain, it is the same, plus the midnight missa. In Korea, it is mainly a commercial event and Christians just go to Church that day.

Must say, for me, Christmas is more important than any Buddhist holiday. And I envy your family in New England: I still haven't forgot a white Christmas when I was a child... There is nothing like it for me, even nowadays, when my beard is... white.

Have a nice time, Konchog. Warm thoughts of you will help us here stand the cold (only -5C in the afternoon, though).

[Konchog]

Well, of course you're not a convert. You were Christian then, and you're Christian now!

Any word from Thimphu?

[Northmoon]

Nita looks so much like the little tabby and white cat I rescued last spring. Same rotund physique!

Although I haven't committed to Buddhism, I don't believe in all of the Christian dogma any more. But I do like some of Christ's teachings and a bit of thinking about giving to others is good for me.

Therefore, I agree with Christian's comment about observing a cultural Christmas rather than religious holiday. I have a very small family group, but we get together for a meal and exchange gifts.

Supposed to go up to +4 C on Wednesday and rain, so we might not have the white Christmas after all.

[Steve Ford]

No nog or dancing round the flaming Hanukkah bush and it's not so cold in Tokyo. Sorry for not commenting on your reading post, I am reading "What Makes You Not a Buddhist." Though short, it is heavier than a double quarter pounder with cheese (don't ask how I know this.) And in place of bootleg dvds I am watching a collection of about 10 WC Fields movies over and over again, I'd forgotten what a genius he was.

[Yeojun]

I'm a convert Buddhist monk here in Korea. Christmas isn't such a big holiday in Korean Buddhist temples, so I suspect I'll do nothing this year at all...except chant Buddhist sutras with the other monks like usual. :)

[Anna]

Tashi Deleg Konchog! It's been a while -- since retreat! :-) Even though I am a convert Buddhist, I'm still expected to follow through with some family traditions. So, while low key, we will come together for a family dinner and gift exchange.
BTW, I love your Blog, and I read (and re-read) the link to "The Questions of King Milinda" -- brilliant!!!

[Carol of Seattle]

As for what I'm reading 'the lizard cage' about Burma.

As for what I'm doing for the holidays, I'm celebrating hannukah with one loved one, christmas with my kids and friends... I'm a holiday 'ho, any excuse for eggnog and cookies (or latkes) is good for me.

We're snowed in here in Seattle, but digging out slowly. I hear the northeast got pounded!

[June Calender]

Nita is a changed being, and beautiful. I'm not celebrating any holiday but am reading a lot. Right now it's Malcolm Gladwell's Oultiers -- a broad picture of what leads to success - in the worldly sense. Recently read Louisa Waugh's Hearing Birds Fly about a year she spent teaching English in what she said was the western most town in Mongolia, she was there for a year, living half the time with in a Mongolan family's extra ger and half with a Kazakh family, weathered a "typical" winter. There are always intrepid English women adventuring somewhere in the world. Prior to that read Pico Iyer's The Open Road, The Global Journey of the Dalai Lama which I think you wrote about a fair while ago. All good books in different ways. You're one of only 3 or 4 blogs I read regularly but have little I can contribute so just "lurk".