Originally Posted by Scud1373

So here is an update as a busy week and Verizon's dodgy service have kept me from logging on.

As Settie suggested, If Cindy bore a grudge over my misguided comment it had a short lifespan. In the two past weeks there hasn't been any dirty looks or avoidance. It is quite possible that the sour look on her face could have been a product of joint pain, and a lot of over-sensitivity on my part.

To answer you Zenda; if it had been a slender coworker, I probably would have said "morning" while shooting past them, or not said anything at all. This speaks to social conditioning that is probably present to a degree in anyone.

To put a stunted but dramatic end to this, here is a Zen parable I found from a book on my shelf;

There was an old woman in China who had supported a monk for over twenty years. She built a little hut for him and fed him while he was meditating. Finally she wondered just what progress he had made in all this time.

To find out, she obtained the help go a girl rich in desire. "go and embrace him," she told her, "and the ask him suddenly: "what now?'"

The girl called upon the monk and without much ado caressed him, asking him what he was going to do about it

"An old tree grows on a cold rock in winter," replied the monk somewhat poetically. "Nowhere is there any warmth." The girl returned and related what he had said.

"To think I fad that fellow for twenty years!" exclaimed the old woman in anger. "He showed no consideration for you need, no disposition to explain your condition. He need not have responded to passion, but at least he should have evidenced some compassion."

She at once went to the hut of the monk and burned it down.