A New Archetype: When I am not a shanti ninja, I am the opposite. I am The Yelling Buddha. The Yelling Buddha came to me one day and liberated me from the modern expectations showered upon my gender and generation. That sweet day, time came to a screeching halt when it dawned on me that Buddha did not have children, or a partner. (He’d left them to search for enlightenment.)
I don’t believe Buddha would sit, smiling pleasantly under the Bodhi tree, while trying to pay the bills, float a marriage, carve out time for friendship, spirituality, and creativity, and raise two fiercely independent children (who sneak downstairs and eat all the Lara bars before anyone else is awake). Nor should I be expected to. So, as I search for enlightenment, through the panic of what multiple Lara bars can do to my son’s tiny pancreas, I will likely mess up…a whole lot. (See Jerkweed.)
