Sand zen gardens are helpful for meditation and relaxation, and I've actually seen a couple of these miniature ones in offices. They're great to play with and look really cool on display.
This story isn't about a funny thing that happened to me while I was at B_tes, it's a funny story that I heard from Ron and Maggie when I was staying with them while I was at B_tes. Maggie is a professor in the Economics Dept, and she was one of the two profs who took a group of us to study in China for a semester (that's how I know her), and Ron is her husband who works in the computing dept at B_tes. They have a nice house very near the college campus and they have a beautiful backyard behind their house. But it takes a lot of work to keep this beautiful backyard looking nice: mowing, raking, picking up whatever that falls on the ground, etc.
Anyway, we were sitting in the living room, and someone starts a talking about the miniature sand Zen garden on their coffee table. Ron then tells this story about a conversation he had with Maggie about sand Zen gardens:
Ron says really wistfully, "You know, maybe we could turn our lawn into a giant Zen garden, so that we wouldn't have to weed or mow or rake leaves . . . " [see again beautiful picture at top of an elegant zen garden--I couldn't figure out how to insert it in the middle of the post]
And Maggie goes, "Are you CRAZY?!! We'd have every neighborhood cat in our backyard!!!"
It doesn't sound as funny here, but when Ron told the story, I cracked up and couldn't stop cackling for the life of me!! I was even giggling about it when I was driving back to Ithaca. It makes me laugh even now.
If you don't get it, you probably don't remember that cats LOVE sand, and that they especially LOVE to SHIT in sand. If they did turn their backyard into a sand zen garden, they could rake patterns in the sand around the little lumps of cat excrement. At least they wouldn't have to mow.
It would actually be cool to have a Zen garden ... what little patches of green I have is all messy with weeds and out of shape overgrown grass (despite pulling them out) as both neighbours have overgrown yards ...
ReplyDeleteNO grass ... judt cool fine sand like that of a really nice beach ... where I can walk barefoot and enjoy the feel of sand through my toes (unless of course I hit a patch of cat poo)
hahahaha, well you can try it and see how it works! a more expensive alternative which some ppl do in malaysia is to actually transplant sod into their gardens. that way you get the "right" kind of grass. :)
ReplyDeleteThe poop would only add to the natural aesthetic beauty of the Zen Garden... NOT!
ReplyDelete