Today I took a bunch of books I’ll never miss to a charity shop in New Malden.
I was supposed to be seeing a friend of mine but he was asleep and his phone was off. So instead I kept myself busy until he got his shit together and we went for food.
New Malden is the equivalent of K-Town. but with less ping pong. You can get Korean food everywhere there. Back in the day the ambassador bought property there and then there was an influx. Last time we went to a super cheap family run place and I burnt my knee horribly on the underside “cook at table” thing. Today is was a more established place and it was quiet (and better cladded). I even got a bit annoyed that the waitress insisted on trying to cook it for us and all at the same time. Maybe I would have been happier getting burnt.
Then we walked the summer streets and observed the abundance of Catholic crosses in the doorways. I remember Han when I was on Camino. A beautiful wise Korean Catholic who thought it was absurd that I was chanting “Nam myo ho renge kyo” by the path every day. I agreed with him wholeheartedly that it WAS absurd, but followed up with my certainty that ANY framework made by humans about belief is inevitably going to be both nuts and wrong, so all we can do is make something interesting up and pursue it if it works for us. I like the deliberately anarchic simplicity with which Nichiren burnt thousands of years of men writing about how Buddhists should believe and decided “Fuck it. All you have to do is this bit. You don’t really even need to know what it means.” And thus he was excommunicated and thus SGI is a society and thus I am happy to open the little doors in my butsudan and create value by saying a few words lots of times. Vibration. I’m part of the value making! Yay? What does value mean? Fucknose. Ask yourself. I know what it means to me.
I’m home. Frank is testing his ACDC act based on starlight express and I really want to see it but I knew I’d be knackered and it’s across London. Next time, he says hopefully… Bed.
AlBarclay 