The Good Girlfriend Prize

Several years ago, when we were still just dating, ehs's parents received an ipod nano for opening an account at a bank. They didn't think they'd use it, and they asked him if he thought I'd like it. So one day at their house they sat me down and told me how much the whole family liked me, how great I was for him, and how happy they were that he and I were dating. And presented me with a nano. I like to call it my "Good Girlfriend Prize," and I'm very happy to have it. Not only because it's always nice to know that you're a good girlfriend, but also because I have used it, quite a lot more than I expected to.

I didn't think I'd get a lot of use out of it, I don't listen to very much music. But then I learned about podcasts. First I realized I could listen to episodes of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" that I had missed. Then back episodes of "This American Life" became available. That was a show I'd always wanted to listen to, but never seemed to catch. Now I could access my favorite things about NPR, but at my convenience. This seemed amazing!

So I spent some time wandering around the iTunes podcast library, just pulling everything that seemed interesting. For a while I was learning basic Japanese. I became a fan of the Irish and Celtic Music podcast. I found Podrunner, which has great music to exercise with. They even released an Interval series recently, which has helped make my mornings more interesting.

Recently I found Ayepod.net, which is my fix for traditional Scottish music. Sometimes I listen to plays through L.A. Theater Works, which I thought would be annoying but is actually very rewarding. They Might Be Giants has an amusing podcast that mixes older songs, live songs, and brand new songs all together. I've also been listening to some episodes of SpanishPod101 to supplement my Rosetta Stone Spanish lessons.

My two current favorite podcasts though are The Classic Tales podcast, and Zencast. The Classic Tales is a collection of stories out of copyright, read by a very skilled performer. I have found most of the stories engaging and entertaining. I just listened to "The Lurking Fear" by H.P. Lovecraft, which was very scary. He's read two Mark Twain short stories which were wonderful. And I've gotten to hear a lot of authors and stories I've never really appreciated. As an added bonus, his voice is very soothing. I don't have any problem listening to the stories as I'm walking around or doing things in the house, but some of them (particularly "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") have been very helpful on long plane rides where I wanted to sleep. Assisted narcolepsy.

Zencast is a series of dharma talks and guided meditations from a variety of Zen Buddhist teachers. There have been talks on many things I had wanted to learn more about. I do appreciate the irony of listening to Buddhist lectures while I'm out walking instead of being fully in the moment of the walk. But it's given me a lot to think about in terms of relating to other people and how I can choose to interact with my emotions.

I especially enjoyed a lecture I recently listened to on the concept of Loving Kindness. There are four kinds of love in Buddhism: Loving Kindness, Sympathetic Joy, Compassion, and Equanimity. You can always find a way to see the best in someone and love them through one of these actions. I liked the description of Equanimity from the lecture, he called it grandmotherly love. It's love without attachment or judgment. The grandmother's been through it all before, so she isn't going to panic or get upset when the kid falls and scrapes her knee. She'll say, "Yes, it's about time that you scrape your knee, you're that age." Equanimity is saying "We may not agree, and I may not approve of your choices, but that doesn't affect how I feel about you." It's equality of love and emotion. Not indifference, it's caring with equality.

And recently in a lecture someone said Buddhists are still part of the world, they still experience emotions and feelings. But those feelings do not control their actions, they can act without being attached to the emotion.

So, many interesting things to think about, and I would definitely recommend Zencast to anyone looking to listen to engaging Buddhist lectures.