and one more thing...

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Did you ever find yourself involved in a task that seemed "endless?"  Just about the time you thought the garden hose was untangled ... well, there was one more crimp to deal with? Just about the time a problem  seemed to be resolved after considerable effort, there was one more aspect that required attention? Just about the time you sat down with a beer after a long, hard day, the dog needed to be walked?

Yesterday, I got an email from a young man who wanted to come here to find out about or practice Zen Buddhism. His request made me realize how cozy I had become on my couch of assumptions. No more messing with that stuff. But right after any item is confidently stamped "no more," there is always more.

The immediate email situation did make me think that if I got rid of the web site and stopped mentioning Zen Buddhism on the blog, maybe the odds would improve for a beer-sipping Shangri-La, a fantasized "the end," a relaxing exhalation on which to mount the words, "no more." But in the same mental breath, I know I am fooling myself.

Sometimes I think life is like some well-intentioned but endlessly loquacious mom on the other end of the telephone. She just can't hang up. "Oh, and by the way..." or "and one more thing...."

Of course if she did hang up, we'd never hear the end of it.
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