Displaying the Sacred

I started playing a game on my phone called Tetris to try and ease my mind over things that have stressed me out. My highest score is 126,092, Level 13, 129 lines cleared. I wanted so much to beat that high score. However the further you get into this game the faster it goes. After beating my Tetris score from last night, I found I was a much better Tetris player when I put my Buddhist beliefs to practice: just taking things as they come.  

As I ate lunch another thought occurred to me as I remembered Julia Garcia showing how the word "impossible" contains the words "I'm possible." When you look at the word "unable" and you read the u, then the n, the able part, you notice it says, "You enable." While I still had not found a girlfriend at UCM, as I have so long hoped to, I also realized that the best way to flirt with a girl would be to try talking about herself.

When I was walking down to my Creative Writing class I ran into Cassie whose wavy strawberry blonde hair had been straightened and partially braided. We said hello and I told her, "Wow Cassie, your hair looks beautiful. Of course it already looked beautiful."

"Thank you," Cassie said and I couldn't help but notice she seemed to blush a little. 

I said, "And I love the braid." 

Cassie said, "I appreciate that," still seeming to blush.

I went down to my Creative Writing class where my poem was work shopped. The class as is their custom told me what was right with the poem and gave me some suggestions about how to improve it. After class I got some more note-taking paper to take notes in class.

The next day I looked up UCM student organizations and found the UCM Fencing Club which meets Mondays and Fridays in the Lovinger Gym at 7pm. Everyone is welcome, it said and all equipment would be provided. The next day Learning Strategies class got out early because Mrs. Carter got a call saying her husband was in the hospital because of an emergency. That night I went down to the Lovinger Gym but found it deserted. The next day I went to the library to work on some Plato Math and I got finished with my weekly planner when I got back. 

The next day I finished my study guide for the chapter we read in Learning Strategies. Then I read more of Relax, You're Already Home and read a chapter called Accept, Accept, Accept. After reading that chapter it occurred to me that I had to accept the fact that I could not do anything about Jack's mom's cancer and thinking about it would not help. 

That night I also realized that my Creative Writing class could also help me with my screenwriting. At first I honestly thought this class was not about the kind of writing I am mostly interested in, being about poetry and short story writing, while I'm mostly into screenwriting. But I thought Once we get into story writing it will be really interesting because many films are based off short stories. The movie The Adjustment Bureau was based off a short story called The Adjustment Team. I never saw that movie was another one of those movies where, I think Peter Griffin in Family Guy best described him as "a Boston-educated street crud." But never-the-less short stories can inspire films. They also are the basic units for novellas, stories that are made up of connected short stories.  That is basically what the show Avatar the Last Airbender was even though it was never made into a successful film. 

I also read a chapter called Displaying the Sacred in which it advised we keep an altar in our living space. That night I got out from under my bed a red velvet stool on which I placed a chime on the back. In front of it was a miniature bronze stupa my family got me one Christmas when I was in High School. Leaning against the stupa was a picture of the Dalai Lama, for all the virtues he represents, propped up by a green stone. Next to it was a Buddhist bowl that my grandparents had gotten me one Christmas when I was in Junior College. And in the front of the altar was a Celtic poem called Song of Amergin.