There are so many books I don’t even think of buying. Too cheap for me. However, I ventured into buying Teri Hatcher’s Burnt Toast, and I have just read it … right after Iris Murdoch’s The Time of the Angels and A. N. Wilson’s Iris Murdoch as I Knew Her . I did it, despite the back cover blurb which says that she is the star of a TV series whose title puts me off. It was a completely irrational choice.
The book does sport a number of somewhat facetious asides. It does get rather preachy at times. The author doesn’t seem to have reached farther on her path to enlightenment than I have on mine; she doesn’t even seem to be making educated efforts.
So how could I rationalize spending $6 (the cover price of the Bulgarian edition) on such a book? It seems easier to explain why such books are of use to their authors and to certain audiences. Well, I am happy I have met Teri, and it’s not because I share the lot of a working single parent who has had a number of failed relationships and is trying to save the world while learning how to take care of herself.
It’s like reading people’s blogs to find out that there are people who are observant, alert, conscious – not all the time, but still they are! They save me from my ever lurking arrogance – the feeling that I am the one and only treading on the Way without a paid Guru. They, perhaps, remind me that I need people in a way, despite the fact that I could do (and I love it) perfectly without their physical presence or even long distance communication.
Did Buddha ever offer a logical explanation of why we take refuge in our Sangha? We just do. It’s good to know one more thing that could make you really happy.
The moral: if you’re attracted by new food, listen to your instincts and try it.
