Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Two of my children wear a MedicAlert bracelets with their names on them. One has a deadly peanut allergy and a bleeding disorder, and the other was born with Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome, is nonverbal, and has been known to “elope.” I thought of them both this morning when I was getting ready to take our French bulldog on the long morning walk that is necessary if our puppy is going to remain calm during these long hot summer days in Davis.
Rather than a bracelet, I typically carry my phone and three sets of keys: one for the weekend, and two for work. They represent my identity, I suppose, as well as access to my home, my bike lock, and my on-campus offices. It’s rather silly that I also grab my driver’s license and a credit card when I leave for these walks. On the one hand, if I keel over on one of the arboreal greenbelts of South Davis, I would want the paramedics to find evidence of my identity when they rifle through my pockets, if only to know to which house they should return my dog and my son.
On the other hand, I’ve never had to show my driver’s license while out on a walk (police officers almost never ask for my papers), and I’ve not yet had to buy anything on the greenbelt. What do the contents of our pockets say about what we value? For example, I wonder how many of us associate our senses of self with where we live, what we drive and what we can buy.
I’m reading a book right now titled In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (an early chapter of the book actually inspired the anagram for tonight’s Pub Quiz). In this spiritual memoir, the author explores this concept of identity when he leaves the abbey that he heads (he’s an abbot) and begins a multi-year unaccompanied trip as a wandering mendicant. The book invites us to ask ourselves who we would be without the trappings of our status, whether those trappings include a Chase credit card, or a monk’s robes.
Spending our time insisting on our identity, and grasping after the objects that make us ourselves, we ensure dukkha, the sort of suffering that Buddhists translate as “unsatisfactory and painful.” When we recognize the temporal and physical limitations on that identity, and therefore our own ephemerality, we might be taking the first step towards increased equanimity.
For most of us, even people who meditate every day, this equanimous state of mind is more an aspiration than a practice. And practices succeed best when we undertake them every day. This morning, for example, my pockets mostly empty, I got to practice a favorite form of meditative circumlocution, as well as attentive loving shared with my son and my dog, two of my many attachments that bring me the most joy.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the topics raised above, as well as the following: Georgia, American firsts, mendacity, Somalia, musical instruments, melting reactors, farm animals, one-word titles, rankings, illustrated books, chlorides and oxides, unsteady steps, languages and cultures, engines, books that were once extremely popular, pirates, the names of TV stars, bodies of water, sleep leaders, internet culture, stirring speeches, French operas, designers, civil rights, strange fruits, players who become coaches, unusual sports, hoods, pen names, table grapes, series of series, compassionate and musical kings, island adventures, train stations, and Shakespeare.
Please join us for the fun this evening!
Best,
Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
P.S. Poetry Night takes place Thursday. Our featured performers are retired Davis physician Charles Halsted – he has a new poetry book out – and poet, storyteller, and musician Angela James, visiting us from Sacramento. This would be a great week for you to join us! We meet at the Natsoulas Gallery Thursday night at 8, and I would gladly add your name to the open mic list.