is and isn’t

Many years ago I read a magazine article with an interview of a man who had gone out sailing by himself and been caught in a storm and ship-wrecked on an island for a month. After he’d been found and rescued and brought back home, he was asked how he was able to survive all that time. His answer was, “The difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude.”

Notice I specified “Many years ago.” This feels like “Positive attitude 101” and certainly for me working a sobriety program for more than 40 years now, and a devoted Zen practice these last number of years, sort of a “Duh.” Which offers another moment of incredulous amazement at how utterly incapable of remembering “attitude” and knowing it and practicing it quite recently – on this adventure up to here, San Luis Obispo. Alone and I guess sorta ship-wrecked.

So after a few days when a dim light bulb had turned on, and through these last two-plus weeks since, I’ve been incredulous again at the reality of my accommodation to circumstances which haven’t changed since I rolled into town Easter Sunday. And then wondering, what isn’t accommodating?