A Good Habit + Comedy + Dewdrops or a Bubble

As the Dhammapada (118) says, "If you do what is good, keep repeating it and take pleasure in making it a habit. A good habit will cause nothing but joy." Joy is just one of the many effects produced by writing, the tip of the iceberg. Since I've always been obsessed with journaling about myself, about me, me, me, I'm a decent listener most of the time. I throw up all of my ego on paper and have little left to burden others with. Maybe this is debatable, but I believe there are outlets for ego: ways to express things to yourself that shouldn't be expressed to others constantly. Like the time a barista put my change on the counter instead of my hand. Far away from me, too. In my journal, I can be mad and take it personally. In reality, she might've been sick. Who knows.

Journaling is how I recognize my own existence and record my memory. I take my spaghetti of thoughts, move my hand holding a stick of ink (never the dreaded pencil, I hate the squeak) and then my thoughts are tangible before me, lasting as long as that paper is intact. It's about the healthiest thing I do. I could work on exercise, I admit. I feel like I suffocate when I run and lifting weights is monotonous, even with music or a podcast, so I settle on walking a decent amount each day to fight off back pain. Probably not enough, but I digress.

In other news, my city has a comedy club I just discovered, not only for stand-up, but for improv and sketch comedy. I've been to a few of their improv shows and I have to say, I think improvisers are the smartest people in the world. One of the actors was chosen randomly to step in the middle and create a limerick about the scene they just did, on the spot. She did it flawlessly (something about the science behind why the sky is blue) and the audience absolutely exploded. Part of me wanted to find her after the show, and I didn't even know what I'd say; I just wanted to talk to her and observe how she communicates, what she's like off-stage, but then I realized she might've just wanted to go home after two hours of entertaining a bunch of drunk people. As a longtime fan of SNL, comedy is so magical to me. How it's put together and performed has always seemed like a mystical practice. I'm debating enrolling in a sketch comedy writing workshop in the spring, if I have the guts, because I'd like to believe I've learned by osmosis over the years. I'll keep ya'll updated.

Here's a callback to the Buddhist scripture I reference earlier. I want to end with one more. Been thinking about what this means, but also how beautiful it sounds. I don't consider myself a Buddhist, but there is so much wisdom in these ancient texts and they serve to inspire me every day.

"As stars, a lamp, a fault of vision,

"As dewdrops or a bubble,

"A dream, a lightening, flash, a cloud,

"So one should see conditioned things."

—Diamond Sutra