Checkmate

Blair is teaching me to play chess. We spent last night playing a game.  I made one brilliant move, completely by accident. Blair in fact had to point out that in my next move I would capture his queen. He's very patient. It's pretty much like he's playing against himself, as he's still allowing me to talk through every move.

I love the game and how tired I feel after I play it. Much mental exertion. However, I also find it frustrating because at this point, I just can't "see" the moves. I can see maybe 1 or 2 moves ahead (maybe), while you really need to be able to look ahead about 8-10 moves.

"I can't see my next move!" I say in frustration. "How am I supposed to maim my opponent if I can't see my next move?"

"Just enjoy the game," said Blair. "Look, I just enjoy moving the little pieces around the board."

This, I think, pretty much sums up our difference in attitude toward life.

He's pretty funny when we play. I'll go to move a piece and across the table I'll hear, "Cough, cough." So I'll put my hand on a second piece. "Arrrgh, cough," says Blair.

"What?" I ask.

He nods toward the board. "Your horse is in mortal danger."

It's amazing how much free time I've gained since my New Years resolution to watch only 1 hour of TV per day. I didn't really think I watched all that much, but I apparently was vegging out for a couple of hours each night. With no TV, there's now plenty of time for reading, chess, walks, cooking, and household chores.

But for now, I must go. My horse is in mortal danger.

Runners Don't Get Sick

Bragging will always bring you down. I did the Mangum Shirt Run this weekend and was boasting to another runner how I haven't been sick since I started running. Actually, we were boasting to one another. D--- said he hasn't been sick with so much as a cold in twenty years.  I can't claim anything close to that, but I usually come down sick hard about once a year and I haven't had more than a light sniffle for going on almost two years now.

That record may soon be broken. I woke up about 3:30 last night with a headache and by this morning it had moved to headache and upset stomach. I'm not quite convinced yet that I'm sick though. I'm wondering if it might not just be too much dry heat. Staying indoors too much with the heat cranked can sometimes make me feel less than good. So I'm taking it easy today (which given the low-pressure life I lead these days, borders on comatose) and am just waiting to see.

It's a good excuse to drink hot tea and eat peanut butter crackers in bed though, don't you think?  It's almost what Mondays were made for...

Are You Psychic?

Anyone out there posses psychic abilities? I think we all have a touch of mind-reading or sensitivity or whatever you want to call it. There's a great book called "The Sense of Being Stared At: And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind" which covers perceptions that don't relate to our senses. (I've read another of this author's books, one called "Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home" and it's fascinating.  They did controlled studies that proved our pets can sense when we're thinking about them and, literally, they know when we're on our way home to them.)

I've always had a mild touch of "knowing" some things. For example, I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that my  friend and fellow author Pam Cable had signed with an agent for her book.  I was going to dash her off a quick e-mail about it, but I was running late that morning and decided I didn't have time. Then a very strong inner voice told me to send the e-mail. I felt that Pam was going to contact me soon and tell me she had an agent and it wouldn't have been as impressive to say afterwards, "Oh yeah, I had a dream that happened." So I shot her a quick e-mail. She e-mailed back the same morning, stunned. She had just signed with an agent and had been planning on calling me later that day.

Now, one can argue that I knew Pam was agent-hunting and it was only a matter of time until she found one. Which is true. But the knowingness of that morning was strong. I just knew it had happened.

I was telling Blair all this at dinner later that night and he kind of chuckled and said well maybe I was psychic. I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. "We all have it. It's like knowing who's on the phone when it rings." He started at me blankly. "Haven't you ever known who's on the phone before you picked it up?" I asked. He shook his head.

I happen to think he's in the minority on this. There have been times when I haven't heard from a friend for almost a year, the phone rings, and I'm like, "That's Brett." And it is. What happens is I find myself unexpectedly thinking about this person for a couple of days. (Maybe it's them thinking about me and I'm picking up on it.) So when I do hear from them, I'm not actually surprised.

This was all new to Blair. "I've never had that happen," he said.

So then I shared with him my greatest psychic power, the one I've had since childhood. It's totally useless, but totally real.

What happens is that a TV sit-com or movie scene pops into my mind. Maybe a portion of a Brady Bunch episode, an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, or a scene from Breakfast at Tiffanys. The scene will stay with me for a day or two and I'll think about it at random times. Within a week, I'll catch that exact scene on TV.  I might be walking by a TV in  a mall, see it over at a friend's house, or be randomly flipping channels and there is the 2-minute scene I've been thinking about. It's very odd. And as I told Blair, I have not yet figured out how to use my powers for good or evil. But I'm sure there's some way to parlay this amazing talent into a career. Maybe put TV guide out of business.

How about you? What are things that you just "know" without being told?

Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Guilford College, a Quaker based liberal arts college in Greensboro, is hosting its 18th annual Religious Emphasis Week. Last night, my neighbor and I attended a free lecture on The Heart & Soul of Islam, presented by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world's foremost authorities on Islam and Islamic science and spirituality. For the record, he also most likely knows more about Christianity than most Christian scholars.

The talk was fascinating. I can't begin to explain the level of intelligence that oozes from this man. You can't let your mind wander for a moment while he's speaking or you'll be lost. He jumped from poetry to history to theory to present-day political agendas in the blink of an eye to make a single point. He's educated at MIT and Harvard, has written 50 (Think about that...50!) books and is a professor at George Washington University. We spoke to a professor who had lunch with Dr. Nasr and he told us Nasr must have a photographic memory. Dr. Nasr recommended a 1967 text to this man and told him in what journal he'd find it, who it was edited by, and gave him the page number.

The talk was kind of an Islam 101. I, for example, had no idea of the importance of Jesus in Islamic traditions. It was a lot to take in and my head felt like it was spinning by the time the lecture was over.

But we weren't done. Looking at our programs, my neighbor and I noted that a Buddhist meditation was taking place across campus at 9. "Why not?" we said, and drove there. Our timing was perfect and we got there about 5 minutes before the meditation started. It was led by the religion professor at Guilford, a delightful man named Eric, and attended by us and about 9 very young and fresh-faced college kids.

I've always associated Buddhist meditation with chanting, but that's not what this was. We all sat in a circle on pillows and with eyes open, focused on a point on the floor about 5 feet in front of us. Legs crossed, hands on knees. Even through your eyes on focused on a point, that's not where your FOCUS should be. Instead, you concentrate on the area right below your nose where your breath is coming in and out. The idea is to be mindless... to hold no thought... to follow no thought. Just be.

Eric rang a bell to clear the air and then we sat for 20-25 minutes in silence in the dimly lit room. I loved it. I used to meditate with a group years ago and I find it so much easier than meditating alone. I've never done an eyes open meditation though. That took some getting used to but there were very brief patches (lasting about 4 seconds) where I felt like I was "there."

We didn't get home until close to 11. I had been rather so-so on going to either event. I get into my "It's so far away and it's just easier to stay home" mood. But I'm so glad I went.  Intellectually stimulated and spiritually open is not bad for a Thursday night.