The Case of the Purloined Cactus





Nothing to do with today's lesson, but heck of a Rosemary bush in the other planter, eh?

What would Buddha do?

Siddhartha Gautama, before he became known as the Shakyamuni Buddha, was apparently raised in the lap of luxury some 2500 years ago. Despite this life of ease, Gautama was reportedly unconvinced of its value. He then allegedly renounced his wealth and the awakened one eventually came up with The Four Noble Truths that realistically addressed the fact that birth, old age, death, sorrow, pain, misery, grief and despair exist and to exterminate these through our own efforts, he offered The Noble Eightfold Path to Liberation. One of the noble truths is that suffering is caused by craving and clinging. Initially, this meant seeing through illusions, such as the idea that possessions can bring happiness. We may be happy for a while, but the happiness does not last.

As the Buddha kinda coldly explained to a dying woman “right now nobody can help you; there is nothing that your family and your possessions can do for you. All that can help you now is the correct awareness. Ouch.

 

In a nutshell Siddhartha said that possessions possess us; their acquisition and loss drive our emotions and cause us to suffer. All of this is a hi-falutin way of explaining what to do about the missing cactus.

 

A few years ago someone used small cacti in small galvanized buckets as a centerpiece on the tables for a Cinco de Mayo celebration at my Shimmy Club. One of them was left on a half a whiskey barrel planter out front where I had planted Mums and leeks. There it sat rain and snow, heat and frost and seemed to do fine. I don’t know why it took me so long, but one day, I thought it would do better in the soil with its other friends, than in the galvanized bucket that never drained properly and I transplanted it to the barrel.

The thief/possessor took the cactus and left this rock

 My daughter came to my new residence the other night for a cook in (hamburgers are just not the same on a Coleman one burner inside my cavernous kitchen). As we were sitting on the deck, digging the front yard to die for, I looked at the barrel and the cactus was GONE!

Shock and despair, at least for me, as we digest this larcenous malfeasance

Feels kinda wimpy cooking two burgers on a Coleman propane stove in a kitchen this size, but it is what it is

 

Now the other day, I noticed one of my neighbors in my driveway, standing next to the planter with the cactus in it,  from a crack in the front door. I saw her but she didn’t see me. I thought it odd, because she has never been in the driveway before, but I shrugged it off as maybe she was waiting for a taxi.

  My first thought was who steals a cactus and not say the rosemary bush or even the box truck sitting next to it? Hooliganistic as it is, only a caring garden person would take the trouble to dig up and abscond with a six inch cactus. I became enlightened that it was meant for the cactus to go somewhere better. Oh did I mention that she has this little garden? I checked but no cactus there. Still. I have my suspicions that she is going to wait me out.

 

As I have finally reduced all of my possessions to a bank account and a duffel bag, I have no desire for the cactus. Did the thief take it to a better home? Will the cactus insist on food, drink and proper sunlight from the possessor? Will possessing the cactus make the possessor/thief suffer? Will the cactus be better off with the thief/possessor than remaining in the whiskey barrel with the new owners? In keeping with the spirit of non-attachment….I let the cactus flow where it may…it really doesn’t exist anyway.