i was gonna tell you

...all about the stuff I read about karma last night that pissed me right the hell off. But then I said to myself, Andrea, no one cares about your philosophical disagreements with major world religions, so just let it drop. So that's the plan. I wish I had something scintillating to discuss instead, but the well's pretty dry.

So maybe we will have a tiny Buddhism discussion. Just not about the stuff that pushed all my buttons. (I haven't even *gotten* to the book Ms Crispix flung across the room yet, either!) But here's one thing. The hardcore Buddhist position is against killing any life. This means vegetarianism, naturally, and you know I'm not going there again, so that's already a fail. It also means, strictly speaking, not killing flies or other insects. I swat flies, but I've been known to liberate spiders to the outside, 'cause spiders are cool. And I kept those ants out of my house this spring and summer with cider vinegar, not pesticides. So I may be slightly ahead in my good works here. But my question is this. Every time I purell my hands in work, am I committing genocide? What's the Dalai Lama's position on antibiotics? How about on washing? I think it was easier for the Buddha to proscribe not killing *anything* when no one knew of the existence of microbes. That flu virus might be your grandmother, yo.

See why I said I'm not a spiritual person? I just cannot take logic and reasoning out of the equation. I am, however, definitely continuing with the metta meditation, because it does my heart and my brain good, and I don't see the downside to increasing the love and compassion I have for everyone.

In other news, I just got an email back from my ex sister-in-law and it reminded me of something I meant to mention in here but forgot. When they came over after Christmas and we were catching up on stuff, I mentioned that I had had the new roof done this summer. You guys remember I was surprised that it cost maybe half of what I had been expecting, right? Well, it seems that her dad (D's other grandfather) also had his roof done, and by my roofer. (Proving once again that he's the go-to guy in our city.) But he had had an estimate done the year before which was in fact about twice what I, and he ultimately, paid. He put it off because it wasn't crucial and it was a lot of money. And then this year when he decided he should go for it, our roofer slashed the price, because the economy was so bad and he wanted to make sure he had enough jobs to keep all his guys working. I kinda think my roofer has some good karma built up too.

Okay! That's all I've got to say about that.

xoxo