5 days with Zoë

Day 0.5: Thursday

At 10:30pm I picked Zoë up at bus station in Oneonta. I also finished my first reasonable teapot in the studio.

Day 1: Friday


In the morning we woke up late, I managed to get into school just in time for a round table. We discussed whether the future of technology and the environment. I advised against putting any hope into developing technology that will "save us" from the current energy and environmental issues.


I gifted Zoë this mug as an early birthday present.




We left school and stopped by the grocery store to grab a few things, we had dinner with Erin, Monica, Barely, and Emily. Barely (below) was adorable as usual.

Day 2: Saturday

Drank abnormal amounts of coffee. Shannon, Zoë, and I left at 8am drove two hours to Corning Glass Museum. We watched several live glass blowing demonstrations and observed both the history and art of glass.

From there, I went to wood-fired kiln at the community college and Zoë and Shannon split off to check out what was in town. At the community college we fired the smaller of the two kilns. Below is a view into a porthole on one side of the kiln.

There was also cracks between many of the bricks that allowed us to peek into the kiln to see what was happening. I am particularly excited because I had pieces all over the kiln, meaning I will have a huge variety of results.

Later when I met up with Zoë and Shannon again I found out they went to historic downtown and the airport to check out gliders (Shannon's obsession.) At the airport it had seemed the military had taken over the museum and gliders, Shannon said the hangers were full of military helicopters. Eventually, we went out to dinner with the ceramics crowd, then took the long drive home. 

Once home Zoë and I watched a chinese film called "King of Beggars" which offered a fantastic perception of Chinese humor, exhausted we fell asleep before it ended.

Day 3: Sunday

We woke up and headed to campus...

I unloaded the kiln and Zoë threw her first bowl!

We went back, did work, made indian food, and enjoyed the sauna.

Day 4: Monday

Early in the morning (10:45am) we headed out to class at school. Zoë joined my Buddhism class, which turned out Sandy was teaching the basics of meditation, a nice refresher for all of us. We went into town and got some questionable pizza for lunch then I had to go to my raw materials course and learning about the interaction of water and clay particles.

That night Alyssa and Elliot came over. We made/ate an absurd amount of Indian food and drank wine out of some funky cups I made.









Day 5: Tuesday

Tuesday had a gloom. Zoë managed to pack up and we headed to South Asian studies where my professer revealed thirty years of his work in Sri Lanka in a handfull of photos, it was really amazing. I think Zoë enjoyed it too. After I we had lunch and I put Zoë on the bus, it was an extra sad goodbye this time for some reason...

The Bell

It was dusk.

(The view out of the front of the monastery, notice the moon.)

I sat on a wood bench part of a circle of forty people in the court yard of a monastery with Woodenfish students and monks. The temple was located on the top of mountain above the noise and chaos of the Chinese cities which we could see below. We sat in a circle drinking green and black tea picked from the very hills around us. A sort of talent show was going on, first the monks would show off a skill, then a Woodenfish member would take a turn and try to match it. If there was any sort of competition, the monks won.

The first presentation by the monks was classical Chinese music on a historic instruments that I cannot identify. As the monk plucked the stringed instrument the notes seemed to wave over us and fit to the natural contours of the bamboo forest around us. Another monk presented a ti chi demonstration, which convinced me a human body can definitely learn to flow enormousness amounts of energy. When he struck the stone ground with his feet we could all feel it, even at a distance.

Our group did a song or two, and some dancing presentations. After there was a short Q&A with the abbot. I winced a little bit at some of the questions, luckily none of them were too bad. Not everyone on this trip has a Buddhist background -academic or practicing. Halfway through the session the monks began to ring the massive temple bell. One girl asked why the bell is rung, the abbot gave an answer related to making the sound of the dharma echoing throughout the universe.

Unsatisfied with the answer, the girl just asked the question again. The abbot sat for a moment puzzled by the question. He told the group to listen to the bell in silence for three minutes. It was probably my most favorite three minutes of the trip. We sat listening to the bell being struck, then hearing the ring slowly be absorbed into the valley bellow, then hearing the bell be struck again as soon as the noise faded beyond our ability to hear. This moment has added to my craving for a Buddhist monastic life, or something along the lines of life centered around practice. It was really great for the group, the rest of the evening flowed quite smoothly and it was entirely due to these three minutes of sitting.

When the Q&A ended it was dark, the bats fluttered overhead and the mosquitoes bit our legs. Rather than going to bed I wandered around the temple into the various shrines to observe the candle lit Buddhas. This was perhaps one of the most enjoyable evenings of my entire trip to China. Since everyone had gone to bed I was alone in all of these shrines, halls, and rooms. I think normally I would have been a little scared, it's kind of like wandering around a church at night. There was something about this experience though that was so warming. Gazing into these Buddhas among the incense and candles I could feel the pulse of samsara, a squeeze of birth and a release of death again, again, and again.

I could hear the bell even though it stopped being rung hours ago. I lied down in front of the main shrine on the cool stone and gazed at the candle lit Buddha. I tried to imagine what he saw, which is life as the way it ultimately is, and probably on a geological time scale. As Buddha stares out those temple doors out into the valley he must see cities go up and down, forest be cut and regrow, people come and go, die and be reborn.

And I, this silly "I," am obviously here for sometime more than any "I" can accomplish. 

A Walk in the Woods Continued

You need to see this photo big, just because I love it.

The Marsh behind Pine Lake

This dog Bronski enjoys hours and hours of fetch everyday.

The Boat House

(Still a favorite)