[joe-frank-list] 'Karma redux'

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	Joe hasn't produced a new show in more that a month, can't get
himself to work; he watches a lot of TV, imagines going to another
country, talks to friends on the phone.
	1:40: Kristine McKenna is distraught, crying; she talked to
her sister.  They both agree that their father was terrible; Kristine
thinks her sister has gotten over it but she hasn't.  (originally
aired in 'The nature of things')
	4:50: Debi Mae West calls: she's mad (but not at Joe), pacing.
She's wet and naked.  (She also was in 'Windows'.)  She's learning to
be a beautiful lotus blossom, waiting for a frog (man).  She's unhappy
that she isn't attracting the right kind of fellow, cries.
	7:20: Joe tells us it's Wednesday night, that he has to have
his monologue written for Thursday morning's recording session.  Kate
calls.  She discusses the SAG (Screen Actors' Guild) strike.  Joe
wants to write his show instead, Kate wants to talk; they fight.
	8:50: 'Friday morning, the day I gather all the elements and
mix the show for that weekend', Kate calls, wants tfo go on a drive
that afternoon.  Kate goes alone, ends up in Big Sur, tells Joe her
car had trouble, she's stuck in Santa Barbara.
	10:20: Another week has gone by, it's Saturday, August 19 ('my
birthday', says Joe)(2000 August 19 was a Saturday.)  Joe decides to
spend it alone.  Kate calls, distraught, had attended a lecture at the
'Bodhi Tree' (http://www.bodhitree.com a new-age bookstore on the 3rd
Street Promenade in Santa Monica) where she met a fellow (a Canadian
DP with whom Kate worked) who disparaged Joe, who told her that Joe
was trying date his girlfriend.  Eventually they find out he was
talking about someone else, Joe Stockton.
	20:50: On the phone, an old woman (Joe's mother?) recommends
he break up with Kate.
	22:10: Jack Kornfield tells about the Buddha just after his
enlightenment.  When people ask him if he's a saint or deva or
something special, he says that he's awake: the the goal of Buddhism
is awakening.  Kornfield tells the joke of the righteous man whose
house flooded, waited for God to save him.
	32:00: Joe tells about a woman he lived with in Washington DC;
almost the whole time he wanted to leave her, but there was always a
reason not to.
	34:50: Joe remembers the time when he was 8 that he ran away
from home, didn't make it to the elevator.
	36:30: Joe feels uncomfortable when he eats in a restaurant
alone.
	37:00: Joe says it's easy to want to be alone when you have
someone who loves you.
	37:40: Joe recurs to the woman in Washington DC, the anguish
he felt at how she would have to live on her own, how he'd put off
separation, their complicated relationship.
	39:50: Joe asks how we know we're in love.  He recalls what he
liked about the woman in DC.
	43:40: Kornfield asks whether a life's path has a heart, says
that a path without a heart is useless.  He tells the 4 noble truths
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths).  He quotes Oscar
Wilde's 'Vita Nuova', 'The most terrible thing about it (jail) is not
that it breaks one's heart--hearts are made to be broken--but that it
turns one's heart to stone.'  (available in his 'Selected prose'
https://gutenberg.org/files/1338)
	46:30: Larry says that no quality of acting would have
impressed the director at his audition, talks about taking control of
his fate by failing deliberately, succeeding by achieving failure.
(originally aired in 'The nature of things')
	49:50: Kornfield says the first step of meditation (also the
last step) is to be here.  He tells of the cartoon that depicts a guy
brandishing a sign that bears the legend, 'Jesus is coming', followed
by another guy whose sign reads, 'Buddha here now'.  He misquotes
James Joyce, 'Mr Duffy lived a short distance from his body.'
('Dubliners', 'A painful case' - the sentence is, 'He lived at a
little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful
side-glances.', which, I think, changes its nature completely.  A raft
of New Age meditationistas use the same sentence as Kornfield.  Most
don't cite a source. 'Dubliners' is available at
https://gutenberg.org/files/2814/
	51:20: Joe recalls 'one evening, years ago' when he lived in
Manhattan.  An ex-girlfriend called, wanted to see him.  Joe thought
it would be a good prank to stuff pillows under his shirt, tell her he
had gained 70 pounds.  She, grim, wanted to borrow $5,000 for an
operation for her father.  Joe knew the father was a reprobate, knew
he wouldn't get his money back, wouldn't lend it.  As she left, he
took out the pillows; the joke didn't amuse her.  (Joe tells the same
story, embedded in a larger story about her and her father, in
'Pretender'; she's Becky, the librarian at the school.  It begins at
29 minutes.)
	54:40: Kornfield tells us the source of our suffering.  His
master would tell suffering people that they were attached.
	56:50: Larry says what he'd do before he commits suicide.  He
says he counts shotgun blasts to the side of his head instead of sheep
to go to sleep.

	From the broadcast: 'You've been listening to Joe Frank "The
other side".  This program was called "Karma redux" with Larry Block,
Kristine McKenna, Debi Mae West, Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, and
Joe Frank; production by J. C. Swiatek, production assistance:
Esme Gregson - music consultant: Thomas Golubic'

	http://jfwiki.org/index.php?title=Karma_Redux

	If you haven't read 'Dubliners', you should.

russell bell