This afternoon Mel and I were driving to a conservation area for a walk when I "just happened" to flip the radio to the CBC. In progress was an interview with an amazing man named Bo Lozoff.
You can listen to it yourself if you can get that darned RealPlayer to work (which, obviously, I could not ... but I hope you have better luck).
UPDATE the next morning:
Okay, I still can’t get that darned link to work, so let me give you a couple of the highlights of the interview, as I remember them, just to explain why this guy is amazing.
Interviewer Mary Hynes asked him a question about carpe diem (seizing the day), and Lozoff said something like, “Oh, I believe in seizing the day, but which day? Is it going to be the shallow consumption-driven consumerist day, or is it going to be a day of depth and caring and compassion? I’m not interested at all in the former, but I’m deeply attracted to the latter.”
Hynes and Lozoff were also talking about being fully present for the other person in any of our human interactions, including store clerks and other strangers whom we encounter in through our day-to-day errands. He told a story of a time when he simply asked such a stranger how she was that day – while consciously seeking to be fully present to her – and she said, “Oh, I’m fine. My husband died two years ago, but I haven’t cried. I just went back to work right away and kept on going. I’ve never cried. But I’m fine.” Zoloff said he felt the embarrassment of being in a dialogue that had obviously moved away from the socially-accepted script, but instead, chose to say with deep compassion, “You know, it would be okay if you did cry.” He said it was as though that woman had been waiting two years for someone to say that to her, because she immediately broke down and wept. It was an amazing story.
Gosh, I really hope I can get that darned link to work so I can listen to that interview again.
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