- A Honda Civic without snow tires cannot get to Gampo Abbey in early March.
- That’s it, really.
- Oh, wait. Don’t get too attached to outcomes.
I’m trying not to be too disappointed, but really, I’m disappointed. The Abbey is only open a few days a year, and they were giving out the practice booklets today, and… Pema Chodron. Once again, I did not get to meet Pema Chodron due to car troubles.
On the plus side, we were able to get the car out of the snowbank without mechanical assistance. And I only crashed once. A little bit. I don’t know. Is it crashing if you slide slowly down an empty hill backwards and spin out, but you’re just stuck between two snowbanks at the end? Like, wedged diagonally across the road? Or is that something else entirely?
OK. Something else I have learned: If you get a “new” car at the end of February, it is probably worth it to put snow tires on for the last 6 weeks of winter.
Also, one physics teacher can push a car downhill on a frictionless surface.
2 responses to “Things I Learned Today”
Ah, very sorry. I had thought maybe you were a student of Pema Chodron. I didn’t realize that the abbey is so cloistered.
I read her books. I practice in her lineage. Because we are members of the local sangha, we get invited more often than the general public (even the Buddhist ones), and I once had the privilege of staying with the nuns for a weekend. But it is a rare event, worth making the effort for, and it was frustrating to be turned away by snow.
But it is what it is. Even if it is frustrating.