The woman who sat in front of me wanted everyone to know that she had read Mitchell's and Katie's work, so the reading by Mitchell went something like this.
"As you know, my version of the Tao Te Ching--
"YESSSSSSS!"
"--was published in 1988. The Second Book of the Tao was published this year."
"YESSSSSS!"
"A second book of the Tao, you ask? There's no such thing! What did you do, pull it out of your hat?"
"Hahahahahaha!"
"Let me read from a couple chapters. Chapter 2. "
"MMMMmmmmm." ["MMMMmmmmm" for the chapter number?!]
Before sorrow, anger,
longer, or fear have arisen,
A soulful sigh.
you are the center.
"Mm hm. Mm hm."
When these emotions appear
and you know how to see through them,
you are in harmony.
Another sigh.
That center is the root of the universe;
that harmony is the Tao,
which reaches out to all things.
"How true. How true."
Once you find the center
and achieve harmony,
heaven and earth take their proper places
and all things are fully nourished.
"Mmmmmmm! Mm hm. Mm hm."
She went on like that for 30 minutes. At the end of the reading, Mitchell asked whether anyone had any questions. Up went her hand immediately. From the force she should have dislocated her shoulder. "What's it like being married to Katie?"
Mitchell was very gracious. Instead of telling her, "That's none of your damned business," he spoke in graceful, slightly vague metaphorical terms about his wife while the woman made yummy sounds all through his response.
When Mitchell stepped to the table for the signing, the woman was out of there like a shot. About 15 other people, Michele, and I stayed to get our books signed and to shake his old cow hand.
Stephen Mitchell and Byron Katie
4 comments:
Additional Label - Why Authors Drink
It must be inspiring to be in the same audience with such a member of the literati as the woman in front of you. (inspired to choke her?)
Is this like the response when a poet reads a poem that's obviously not the only poem she's reading?
People don't want to clap yet but they seem to have to make some acknowledgment that it's over, so there's a sort of "hmmmm" or a hushed "ahhhhhhh," plus shuffle shuffle cross leg, as the poet turns over the page.
I suspect what the noise means is "My mind was elsewhere but I'm sure that was meaningful."
Some people have no boundaries. I'm glad you got to meet them.
Post a Comment