Wednesday, November 26, 2008

DicksnJanes #175: BeijingBlues

The breakfast that did me in!

The Scarborough Dude eats something he shouldn’t have, and pays the price over and over again.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another amazing podcast Dude - I salute you for your incredible honesty and courage in putting this one out...
Your trials and tribulations somehow remind me of what Boethius had to put up with in his attempts to understand his situation. Here's the extremely squashed version:
Brooding over my sadness and old age, it seemed to me that I saw a woman before me, plainly not of my time or age. She dried my eyes all swimming with tears, my clouds of melancholy were broken, I saw the clear sky and I beheld my nurse, Philosophy. "I desert thee not, my child," said she, "Wisdom hath often been assailed by peril, as Socrates found. Thou hast found out how changeful is the face of the blind goddess fate. Come, reckon up thy blessings! Thy wife with her gentleness and virtue, thy sons and their consular dignity. As for riches, money is only precious when it is given away, and it can only fall to one man's lot by the impoverishment of others. And as for rank and power, these have often fallen to the worst of men, and then did ever an Etna work such mischief? True happiness is the perfect good; therefore, true happiness must dwell in the supreme Deity. By the will of God the good are always strong, the bad always weak and impotent; that vices never go unpunished, nor virtues unrewarded. The good must be happy, for because they are good." But I was perplexed by the chance falls of fortune; "There is no place for chance in this universe," she said "for nothing can arise without a cause- but you have a free will within that. Honour the god, for all things are as they should be"

Breathe easy and enjoy the rest of your time there Ken -

rob

Richard Bunky Bell said...

My 24 yr old daughter is staying 7 month in a hostel in Edinburgh. (oh to be young again)
I stayed in a hostel one night in my life in B.C. Never again.
I used to camp (tenting) but not a lot.
As I've aged 4 & 5 star hotels have become my favored mode of accommodation.
And especially for international travel the 2 things I always travel with...my pillows and extra strength imodium.
I'm older and make no apologies for my demands.

Anonymous said...

The irony -- I'm in bed, miserably sick, listening to you, miserably sick.

Great episode. And if all you do here is make your listeners realize they are not alone in dealing with the human condition, then that seems a great gift indeed.

Hope the rest of your travels find you well...

Todd Tyrtle said...

Excellent episode, SD. And not to make your judgments for you but it seems pretty clear to me what your purpose in going there was. You were taking stock of where you are, processing lots of info about where you were, are, and want to be. Whether that results in acceptance or change doesn't matter, but facing the demons head on was the important thing. The only bad choice from here on out is inaction without acceptance. Saying "this sucks" is ok. Sticking with that assessment (rather than accepting where one is) and not doing anything to affect change is the only way you could go wrong IMO.

Anyway, that's just my opinion based on a very limited knowledge of most of what's going on for you.

Anonymous said...

Wow the gravity of this show was pretty intense. The most amazing part I would have to say, though was when you talked about the Simon and Garfunkle song. A good friend of mine was in town last weekend and played that exact song introducing it as "the happiest song in the world" and he couldn't be more right! It's amazing that we were grooving to the same song in such close temporal proximity. When you mentioned the song I had to pause the show and just smile out of astonishment. Anyway this China series is one of your best I am currently downloading 176 and anxiously await listening to it.
Thanks again for the honesty and humility that you put into your shows, your naked humanness is what makes your shows so great.

Thanks Kenneth Pararo

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit behind in my podlistening (podcastee? -- what do you call a listener of a podcast?) and so, late arriving for our meeting in Beijing. I think that this must be your most odiferous podcast. I hope that when I say that it "stinks", please understand that I mean that in the best possible way.

I, too, have spent some time in similar accomodations. I bunked for a few days at the Holland Park Youth Hostel in London, England in 1974. The "warden" was a young fellow with a nasty, uncooperative mouth who seemed to feel that he was above the job and liked to point that out by belittling all questions with a withering retort delivered in received pronounciation. Forget fools; he didn't suffer humanity.

I was sitting in the lobby, probably planning how to get out of London, when a grey-haired fellow came to the desk to complain about the water or his bed or the cooking pots. Honestly, I can't remember anymore; I do recall the dryness that came from the desk: "I'm sorry, sir. But, afterall, this is a youth hostel." The warden lingered on the word "youth" and it was this stress that caused the old man to glare for a moment and then walk away. I spent three months in England, easily hitchhiking from hostel to hostel. I met many pleasant and generous people offering meals and accomodation to a complete stranger. Hosteling forced me out the door at 9:00 AM and I saw a lot of cathedrals as a consequence of that fact. Over the years that have passed, I have thought about whether I would try the hosteling experience again. Your podcast reminded me of that offcious turd behind the counter at the Holland Park Youth Hostel and I, as well, wonder, "Am I too old?" I hope that I would revert to the vernacular of my working-class father and say, "Nah." Judging by this podcast, it would seem that a constipated asshole would only be a distant, lingering memory, anyway.

Yowa, Skippy.