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It’s going on right now! I’ve had the idea for this post for some time. Generally, I’ve got about fifteen posts partially done, and about ten more ideas for posts floating around in my head.

Figuring out what to say is not hard for me. Finding the time and especially the peace to write it in is the hard part.

For instance, just now my kids were busy playing a game. I thought to myself, Yes! I can sneak off to the computer and write.

I get the title written, and I was just about to start the post itself, when both my kids burst into the breakfast room and start yelling. Well, really talking loudly at the same time, but it seemed like yelling.

They’re bored! They want to know what to do. Oh, and…

“Daddy, can I have a Gatorade?”

“Daddy, can I play Super Solvers on the little computer?”

“Daddy, when is Mommy coming home?”

“Daddy…Daddy…Daddy…DADDY!”

“Yes, no, yes, yes, no, no, no, yes, yes, no, yes, no, no, no, no, yes, no! Just use those as you need them and give me about fifteen minutes peace!”

Now, I feel guilty. I popped some (harmless and educational) video onto the VCR. Maybe THAT! will keep them busy for a while.

How awful!

But oh so necessary!

So, what’s my issue with the Dalai Lama?

Look, I just went to the Dalai Lama’s Official Website . I even began this post with a picture of the guy so you can take a look at him.

He looks like a really nice guy! Like someone’s grandfather. He honestly has great holiness in his eyes.

When you see pictures of him, or see him on TV, he’s always so…holy. And I know he’s doing really important stuff, like trying to protect Tibet from the Communist Chinese.

But the reality of all of this is

1) He doesn’t have a job other than Dalai-Lama-ing.

2) He doesn’t have a wife with a To-Do list.

3) He doesn’t have kids to wake up, feed, educate, protect, love, sometimes spoil, chase balls with, reluctantly play Barbie with, or crawl into bed with when they’re having nightmares!

Of course he can save Tibet!

Who couldn’t save Tibet if they didn’t have kids pulling on them, yelling for them, coming to them with skinned knees, having to be held, having to be played with?

Heck with as much time as he has on his hands (and Richard Gere’s money) I could not only save Tibet, but I could save the whales; save the three-horned, spiny, purple spotted, left-handed, Ecuadorian frog; and undo Global Warming in the space of about a week!

I bet with two weeks of uninterrupted time, I could turn it all into Global Cooling and convince Al Gore to be the headliner at the Republican National Convention! (Well…maybe not.)

I mean!

Look, I know all this religious stuff is important. I’ve prayed my whole life and meditated since I was a teen. But who are you going to give the Nobel Peace Prize to, a guy with a virtually unlimited budget who sits on the floor contemplating for four hours a day, or someone like me whose day goes like this:

4 am awake!, tea, meditate, write (blog)

5:30 am shower, shave, cook my breakfast and make my lunch

6:30 am to 7:15 am drive

7:30 am to 3:30 pm work (that’s teaching high school–real work!)

4:00 pm to 5:00 pm drive (traffic’s worse)

5:00 pm to 6:30 pm cook supper and eat. (In case you don’t know, supper is Southern for dinner.)

6:30 pm to 6:31 pm check email, slip in some blogging, surreptitiously comment on as many blogs as I can.

6:31 pm to 7:30 pm get children ready for bed

7:30 pm to however-long-it-takes pm actually get my children to go to sleep.

Then! from however-long-it-takes pm until I pass out from exhaustion do the following: Work out, if my wife’s asleep. If my wife’s not asleep, then sit on the couch next to her and look at some stupid television show, talking to her about her day during the commercials.

I would really like to see ol’ Tenzin Gyatso survive just a paltry one of these bad boys!

God bless Tibet, but I mean who has time? Is it Tibet or helping my son with his homework?

Spin that in your prayer wheel for a while!

Okay, okay! I’ve calmed down. It’s just that the Dalai Lama, the Pope, the Primate (or is it the Prelate? Where is Jane Godall when you need her?) of the Ethiopian Coptic Church. These are really important people doing really important work!

In the midst of just treading water, you need to understand the big “why”. Only, who has the time, or the energy?

This might be one reason that blogging has become so important to me. It allows me to connect with all of those other Bodhisattva wannabe’s out there. That is, of course, in between doing the laundry and trying to figure out where the dog just threw up.

Jema jai yong!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 12:30 pm and is filed under General, Ranting, Fatherhood, Parenting, humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.