Dear zen. friend

1)     February  Sesshin:  02/14, 02/15, 02/16. 

        March  Sesshin:      03/14, 03/15, 03/16.     

2)    A fox was walking slowly on snow into woods. Its coat was bright, yellow and brown colored.  By just looking at it I had a happy feeling. Fox has mysterious power. One of the most popular temples in Kyoto shrines fox.  

Consumption of firewood seems to have been increasing one winter after another. More firewood must be split during summer time. 

3)   One night before presidential election day,  Mr. Donald Trump was shown on a TV show, Gutfeld. He was surrounded with 4 or 5 professional comedians.

 My opinion: Comedy is the hardest profession in America. Especially at Gutfeld show, guest performers must answer all questions. They don’t know what will be asked. Each answer must make laugh in audience. How many seconds a comedian has time for thinking laugh making reply? I cannot imagine how fast their brains are revolving. 

While Mr. Trump was sitting with smartest Americans, those comedians burst into laughter many times. He brought unknown stories and untold viewpoints. Comedians were waiting for excitement with his comments. Laughing did not end. Who was funnier?  Set aside politics, Mr. Trump has a bountiful sense of humor. 

While Mr. Trump had TV show decades ago, I thought he was engaged with show business, a matter of money. In reality, he  was performing at each appearance with sincerity and perfectionism. And the same performing spirit aroused at the Gutfeld comedy show. 

Inauguration ceremonies went on from ten am  to midnight. I wanted to see a formal procedure of the most important national event.  I  watched TV  all day long. President Trump took an oath safely.

After the swearing in, president Trump delivered remarks. They were brief and simple. Americans don’t know how important they are. The US presidents’ remarks are already an international matter. I studied remarks of JFK at Japanese high school. 

President Trump signed executive orders later. TV camera was focusing on his pen. New president was talking to himself that people liked his remarks and he was proud of it. 

I thought all president remarks were written by a speech writer. Creator of presidents’ speech is not president but a speech writer. Title, former speech writer seems to be a good step for making career. If so, president should have praised his speech writers. 

President said he was proud of his remarks instead. It means he must have created first presidential remarks. He tried to do the best performance at TV shows.  And this time  he did it on the stage of the world. 

Regards.

Eishin Ikeda

Valley Zendo