Track Mangoes

"The amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana [1 ounce = 28g] in their jeans simply makes no sense - the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social energy."
-William F. Buckley

It is traditional for Buddhist monks the shave their head on the quarter moon, a day of cleansing and renewal, devoted to the deity Vajra Satva. However, in a bout of laziness, I asked my Tibetan tutor at the monastery at Mirik if this was necessary. He responded by saying that if you have trouble remembering to shave your head on the quarter moon then you should try to do just that, but if you always feel compelled to shave your head on the quarter moon then you should try your best to shave your head when you feel like it.

So today I implore you to take a moment of self reflection, of reconsideration. If you are an avid marijuana user, step back and try to remember why you started in the first place. If you feel your children are at risk of becoming stupid, why not step back and try to remember that they could out-Facebook you in any state of mind. If you worry about "gateway" drugs, try to remember the things you did you feared at first. If you feel you have friends with whom you might never smoke, reconsider. If you feel you have friends with whom you are high more often than not, why, isn't today the best of days to take that sober walk? down the street and through the air, catching whiffs of the smoke plumes as they pass under your nose?

The sober moo about purity. The hazy moo about that state which one might define as "chill." But what are we to do with the man in between: a cow who barks, not knowing what is expected of him.