I'm sure you have noticed this pattern by now: The way my Dad prefaces or prepares us for tragedy or mishap with the explanation and disclaimer, "I was in a hurry, rushing, rushing, my mind already completing next week's chores..." We've all (I'm assuming) sliced our fingers when rushing to prepare dinner, mind on something else. I certainly have numerous tiny scars all over my hands.
This pattern is interesting to me because, well, if I could distill my Dad's personal philosophy into just a few words it would read (to borrow from Ram Dass) BE HERE NOW. He loved the Buddhist and Zen teachings, Krishnamurti and the power of presence. But my Dad was pretty driven, pretty ambitious and it seems the pressures to preform, whatever task, to keep moving forward, drew him out of the present and into peril, over and over and over again. All this is especially relevant for me as the tendencies of my Dad's mentioned above have found fertile soil in my character and I need to remind myself, over and over, to BE HERE NOW.
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