Morning glories in all of their glory on a September morn, near my apartment parking space.

The Buddha once taught a lesson by simply holding up a flower. That was one of his better lessons. The core teaching of Buddhism (the four noble truths) regards craving. Craving was said by the Buddha to be the cause of all suffering, and the cessation of craving can extinguish all suffering in this world. Sounds good, no?

Even though I am a loyal member of a Zen sangha, I disagree. Well, I partly disagree, anyway. Certainly, craving for material things and stimulating experiences and ego and comfort can cause much suffering; to both the person doing the craving, and all those who he or she will walk over to
satiate that craving. “Crave” implies an exaggerated, amped-up level of desire; gotta have it! Admittedly, craving is most of what is wrong with America today.

To crave something is to fixate the mind upon that thing, to ignore all else, to not balance out the goods and bads that come with any thing or experience. So, I certainly agree that materialistic or egotistical craving is a bad thing.

The four noble truths don’t stop with things and experiences, though. They push the concept all the way to life itself, to “existence” (and also “non-existence”). In that regard, I have to take exception. I think that it is natural to “crave existence”; I think that at heart, existence is good. There certainly are instances where it is noble to give up one’s life, one’s existence for the good of another (or many others, more likely). But those instances are relatively rare (thank goodness). In the 99.9% of the time when our existence does not get in the way of some greater good, I think it is good to “crave” one’s existence. It is even better if that craving leads us to a positive passion; e.g., the passion to be a musician, to be a writer, to raise one’s children well, to be a scientist, to start a successful business, to be an athlete, etc. Having a passion, at least a positive passion, can make life extremely rewarding.

But passion, even the most positive passion there is, can also make life extremely painful. To live to the fullest means risking and experiencing a lot of pain along the way. Perhaps it even means the pain of ultimate failure or rejection. The Buddha’s prescription to eliminate all suffering in life through the cessation of craving thus does not make sense to me, in this context. Buddhism seems to say to the aspiring young pianist or basketball player or science student that a calm apathetic life centered around meditation is best, as the enlightenment that it might bring will eventually overcome pain. Perhaps in a person’s later years, this makes sense (but even then, some may choose to “rage, rage against the dying of the light”).

But for young people, I would say: GO FOR IT. NO PAIN, NO GAIN. Leave the Buddhist navel-gazing (which I do most every day) for later in life, once all the pain you will experience can make more sense.

People who came of age in the past twenty years or so don’t remember much about “The Bell System“. But for old fogies like me, Bell Telephone (aka “Ma Bell”, the nick-name given to AT&T and the local affiliates that ran most of the telephone phone system in the United States up thru 1984) was once a way of life. It was how you made a call. The bell logo (which was a tribute to the telephone’s founder, Alexander Graham Bell) was almost everywhere you looked; on phone books (remember those?), on phone booths (ditto), on your phone bill, on maintenance trucks, advertisements, utility buildings . . .

But the world has changed, and the Bell System is an idea whose time has long passed. There are all kinds of different companies out there today offering a menu of different phone services. But the old Bell organization should not be forgotten, as it was well run; in the first half of the Twentieth Century it allowed the telephone to become a critical component of American life, for both business and social purposes. Bell / AT&T did its job and did it well.

And interestingly enough, you don’t have to walk very far today in most any town before you can see evidence of the old Bell organization. You simply need to know where to look. And that is to look down. There are still thousands and thousands of manhole covers in the streets bearing the Bell logo (ah, “manhole cover” — another antiquated, politically incorrect phrase!). Given how long cast-iron covers last, it could be many decades before the last symbol of the old Bell infrastructure is put to scrap. I took a little walk around my own neighborhood, and hardly had to venture more than two blocks to find several old Bell covers. So I snapped a few pix, in tribute to the enduring legacy of the old AT&T / Bell organization. Enjoy!