Thursday, January 04, 2007
Visiting New Orleans
We just got done visiting upstate NY, and now we're going down to New Orleans. In fact, we leave for the airport in 17 minutes. I had an interesting experience last night at an A.A. meeting when a guy came up to me who I had seen a couple of weeks ago while we were both shopping for Christmas presents in a New Agey kind of store. Anyway, at the meeting last night, he said "I've been going there for years, but, you know, the Buddha just aint enough for me man." He needs A.A. too, is what he was saying. Let me say that when I saw him in the store, he was with his girlfriend, and I had just assumed his girfriend dragged him into the store, so I had no idea he had Buddhist inclinations. You have to remember, I live in the middle of the Bible belt, and the discovery that I'm not the only Buddhist in my A.A. group is significant. He and I both agree that A.A. and Buddhism go together well. He said that when he picked up his white chip, he also started reading a book about the the four noble truths and that they go hand in hand with A.A.'s "big book." I had noticed the very same thing, and had written a bit about it in my journal. In fact, I think there is a strong correspondence between the four noble truths and A.A.'s 12 steps.
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3 comments:
vacuous,
I meant to comment on your earlier post that asked was it "into" the house or "in to" the house. Though I should know (because I used to make my living from knowing such things), that's a question that's bugged me for years and I've never even tried to get an answer. It seems to me that "into" is used almost exclusively -- I almost never see the word separated, though I think it should be, fairly often. It's a mystery that only a real grammarian can solve.
I also related to your post about New Year's resolutions. I, too, avoid making them, feeling it's an arbitrary moment to vow you will self-improve. But I also shudder over certain ingrained traits of mine -- I just think resolving to eliminate them is pointless. Perhaps becoming 'aware' (in a Buddhist way or through therapy - Freud said this was the answer too) is the way to keep them in check.
Enjoy New Orleans! And happy new year.
My first inclination was to write "in to" but then I realized it's usually written "into." I was hoping for a definitive answer.
Just got back from New Orleans. The city is definitely in the midst of recovering from Katrina, but I can't believe how phenomenal the food was. I had a catfish poboy, a softshell crab poboy, excellent crayfish etouffe, among other things. We even went to a sushi restaraunt one night and ordered a crayfish roll and a softshell crab handroll, in addition to other, more standard fare.
into the house is fine.
from M-W:
1 -- used as a function word to indicate entry, introduction, insertion, superposition, or inclusion "came into the house" "enter into an alliance"
I think "in to the house" would strike most as a bit clunky. (Most of that miniscule minority of the population that would notice, that is.)
Meaning-wise, I think the two spellings are indistinguishable.
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