Sansaku: The Universal Solvent
9/15/20
Love factors need, desire and duty into higher order meaning. Along with water, the universal solvent. Rumi channeled the stuff and poetry flowed from his lips. “Ours is not a caravan of despair. Even if you’ve broken your vow a thousand times, come again, come.”
The empty cup is an archetypal image. Ready to receive.
Not a statement, but a presence. “A rose is a rose is a rose.” Gertrude Stein said making love is saying a name, over and over and over. The grammar of love. I loved her name before I could spell it, Chyako.
Positive psychology measures from the highest level of development. The norm becomes a problem. Maslow called normal the psychopathology of the average.
I’ve always liked the saying: A normal person is someone you don’t know very well. Our family looked normal enough, but our dad was a charismatic alcoholic who gambled with our lives. Luck is the residue of design. Irma played the cards for us and won the hand with love.
Five years to the day, Chyako asked, “Are you ready to be invaded by Japan?” Okasan and the family were coming for a visit. I wasn’t the empty cup I wanted to be, but felt full when they left.
In the limbo of covid and convalescence, if you ask what it means, I don’t know. The story is still in session. When we’re back to normal, just kidding, I’m guessing the meaning is love.
I have favorite moments. Chyako on crutches and walking down the street in the late afternoon light. Wearing a pretty purple skirt and looking mighty sweet, a friend shouts out, “It’s so good to see you.”
Life isn’t a problem to solve, but love dissolves the problem.
bestslowly 