the teacher and the moose antlers

2022.02.18
A real life Zen Koan, from 1999:
The Student was stuck in traffic on Memorial Drive and ranting and raving about the infuriating malice or at least callous indifference of the world to his preferences. Then, adding injury to insult, the Driver from the other lane snuck in ahead in a clear violation of the alternate merge rules that were a hallmark of civilized society. Noting the Student's renewed raging fury in his rear view mirror, the Driver Ahead stuck his thumbs in his ears and made moose antlers.

At that moment, the Student was enlightened.

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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Rabbi Tarfon

Sandy Bates: "But shouldn't I stop making movies and do something that counts, like-like helping blind people or becoming a missionary or something?"

Voice of Martian: "Let me tell you, you're not the missionary type. You'd never last. And-and incidentally, you're also not Superman; you're a comedian. You want to do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes."
(With usual disclaimers about not endorsing Woody Allen in general...) There is something nicely Taoist about this view. It's a phrasing that comes to me often.