Rush Limbaugh and Me

Politics can really knock you off your cushion if you let it! I realized this recently when the CD player in my car went haywire, forcing me to search the radio dial for entertainment during my long commute. As I punched around to different stations, what had started as a beautiful sunny day with endless possibilities turned progressively uglier. On one station the announcer and a caller were arguing about the Scooter Libby trial. I got disgusted, cursed at the radio and punched the button. On another station a reporter was describing a roadside bombing in Iraq that had left two American soldiers dead. I listened, fumed, got extremely depressed and flipped to another station. By this time I was giving dirty looks to cars that I thought were following me too closely, and mouthing obscenities to cars in front of me that I thought were moving too slow! By the time I got to my destination I was a wreck. Now, I have a nice classical station programmed to ease my commute. When I'm able to sit through a whole segment of talk radio with a smile on my face, knowing that the world will keep spinning regardless, and nothing, not even something as poisonous as politics, can destroy my radiant buddha nature, then I know the power of this thing we call "zen practice."