Wednesday, March 5, 2014

quiproquo

One of the techniques of 17th century French comedies is called quiproquo -- a bit of dialogue in which two characters think they are talking about the same thing when in fact each is talking about something different.... sort of like talking about "pair" and "pear." In the hands of writers like Molière, it could be pretty damned funny.

Yesterday, I got a brief email from someone in Northampton asking about details of the zendo out behind my house here in Northampton. I get these things from time to time and wrote back a pretty standard reply ... the meditation schedule, the availability of instruction for beginners, the format of the Sunday mornings when I generally open the place up for public use. I was convinced that "Daniel" and I were working from the same playbook.

Several hours later, I got a thank-you note from Daniel together with the admission that he had not been entirely clear and that getting to a Sunday morning meditation period might prove difficult:

Daniel lives in Northampton, England.

I had to laugh.

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