Tuesday 4 November 2014

Bruce

It's after the service and I'm standing outside the Buddhist temple in Market Street, San Diego, when Bruce comes up to me and says hello, shakes my hand and tells me it's good to see me again.
'Hey,' says Bruce, who has wooden Buddha beads around his neck and is wearing a pale blue Hawaiian style shirt, jeans and brown leather flip-flops, 'it's good do see you,'
'Hey,' I say back, 'oh, it's very good to see you, too,'
And then, because Bruce looks so happy, I tell him how happy he looks.
'Bruce,' I say, 'you look so happy, you look happier than last week,'
'I am happy,' he tells me, 'I've had a good week,'
Then, because last week when we had sat together for refreshments after the service, drinking green tea and eating rice and a Japanese salad, and Bruce had told me how much he works, I ask him some questions about his job.
'How's the job going?' I say, 'do you own the company?'
Bruce laughs and says no, he does not own the company, but he has worked there for 23 years and that he loves his job, which involves designing some kind of metal work.
'I love my job,' he says, 'I love going to work, I love the work I do,'
I tell him that's great.
'Yeh,' he says, 'so many people complain about their jobs. I want to ask them, "Hey, if you were hiring someone to do your job, would you hire someone like you? Someone who moans and complains all the time?"'
I start laughing and so does Bruce.
Then he tells me he loves the company he works for.
'I'm good at my job,' he says, 'and I like helping my company prosper, because they have been very good to me and I have prospered,'
I tell Bruce that this is a great way to look at life and work, and then we get on to the subject of chanting.
'I like how chanting feels,' I tell Bruce, 'like literally how it feels in your body,'
Bruce says he does too.
'It's like someone hit's you with a big tuning fork,' I say to Bruce while I pretend to hold a big tuning fork and hit him on the shoulder.
Bruce laughs.
'It's exactly right,' he says.
Then he asks me if I have a TV.
'Oh,' I say, 'is your show on today?'
Bruce's company is going to be featured on 'How It's Made' and I want to watch it.
'No,' Bruce says, 'but there's a show called CBS Sunday Morning and it has really great things on it. Like, this morning there was a segment on blind baseball players who use a sort of sonic ball that makes sounds,'
'I don't generally watch TV,' I tell him, 'American TV frightens me and makes me anxious,'
'Try this show,' he says and smiles, 'it will make you feel good. It's full of...goodness, really,'
I tell Bruce that I'll try to watch next Sunday and then he asks me how my trip to Los Angeles had been and I tell him that I had done some tattooing, and spent the evening in a strip club and I tell him about the train trip that goes partly along the ocean, and that at 7am the sun was coming up on one side of the train, over the bare hills, and that on the other side I could see, through the fog, the surfers out on the Pacific ocean, waiting for their waves.
'Ah,' says Bruce, 'you know that's the only other time I get some kind of peace in my head,'
And then he holds up his hand and starts waving it in front of his forehead.
'It's always going on up here,' he says, 'but not when surfing and not when chanting,'
And then we laugh.
And then we talk about the content of the service.
And then we talk about the priest.
And then we talk about new years eve celebration at the temple.
And then, because I am going out for lunch, I tell Bruce I have to get going.
But then we stand there in the Buddhist temple car park for a bit longer, me holding my bicycle, my helmet on my head, and Bruce swinging his car keys and smiling until even though I really want hug him, I just shake his hand and tell him that I liked his ideas on prosperity and that I hope I would see him next week.
'I hope I see you next week,' I say to Bruce.
'Yeh,' says Bruce as I get on my bicycle and get ready to cycle off, 'I hope I see you next week, too.'








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