September 27, 2006
Dolly
The Dalai Lama was on the distinguished lecture tour down the road at the University of Buffalo when CP and I were at Chautauqua, NY, a while back. NPR’s local WBFO was frequently mindful of the news about his presence and his claim that peace is a good thing to be sought after.
Their announcers kept calling him the Dolly Lama, so often that if ever he’d been there before, which he apparently hadn’t, I’m sure they’d have had somebody sing how good it was to have him back in town. His presence also reminded me of Ogden Nash’s famed ode to lamas.
“The one-l lama, / He’s a priest. / The two-l llama, / He’s a beast. / And I will bet / A silk pajama / There isn’t any / Three-l lllama.” To which Nash appended the footnote, “The author’s attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer. Pooh.”
It’s generally good for us to have folk like the Dolly and the Pope and Billy Graham to remind us that there are other options than violence by which we might consider living together. The Pope and Dr Graham, of course, have had their moments dissing people of other religions and having to apologize for it, but they no less have some credentials left for being more or less in touch with their serenity and telling us to get over ourselves and perhaps be a bit less flappable.
Speaking of peace, W’s having his usual defensive moments with Geneva’s inconvenient Convention. Not only that, but other heads of state challenging him to debate and suggesting that he’s not all that bright and has made a few mistakes, himself, must be something of a drain on him. At least Benedict and Billy have ‘fessed up to their mistakes (mostly, of course, when they have come to light). Having a conscience no matter how clean, I reckon, is to be preferred to having apparently no conscience at all.