For today’s HugNation I am going to read from one of Grandpa’s old Sermons called “The School Of Suffering.”

Join us!

I may have written the catchiest (and most morally questionable) song EVER.
I don’t want to jump the gun, but this may be my crowning achievement.

Parents watch first before showing to children.
Your morality may vary.

EDIT: the creature in question is a nudibranch! Thanks, Josh!
Hi Res version:

 

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When I was really young, my strongest connections to my grandpa revolve around rocks.

He lived in Colorado and climbed mountains.
I remember him taking me to cool places where he had found dinosaur bone fossils.

He was known for wearing bolo ties with rocks or fossils that he had put through a rock tumbler. In fact at his funeral, all my uncles wore Grandpa’s old bolo ties.

I didn’t make the connection to his old hobby, but for the last couple years I described Grandpa as being “softened like a river rock.”

When he was younger, I’m told he was more of a fire and brimstone preacher. But by his final chapter, he had lost the sharp edges of homophobia, nationalism, and evangelicalism.

He called himself a Baptist Buddhist and frequently wrote that “All religions are true.” *

I love the metaphoric beauty of river rocks, They are smoothed by time, not force. And that seems to describe grandpa, too. Life experiences, like the ever-flowing rush of water, removed the beliefs that did not resonate with love. All the harshness was rubbed away by the universal flow.

After reading a friend’s blog post a few days ago about rock tumblers, all the old memories of grandpa’s rocks came flowing back. I suddenly felt a deep desire to have a polished fossil of my own. So I went on ebay until I saw something that reminded me of what Grandpa used to have. I bid, won, and now am wearing a polished piece of fossilized coral.

It reminds me of grandpa. It reminds me to be softened by the flow. It anchors me to the timeless cycles of all living things.

It is amazing how insane I can become.

(more…)

Here’s the hug…

and some Tao Buffet rambling about Doing the Right Thing in a world defined by global media.

What a wonderful way to start the day! My brother and nephew stopped by for a quick visit this morning. Such a treat.