Friday, June 5, 2009
Books Pissed Connections: The Pushy Buddhist on the L Train
Posted by Jonny Diamond on Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 9:46 AM
There I was on the afterwork L train, reading my heavily underlined copy of the novelization of Willow, when a short-haired young woman pushed her way through the crowd to talk to the man sitting in front of me, a slightly balding, handsome muscular type. Evidently she'd noticed the book he was reading was of the Buddhist persuasion, and she leaned in to comment to that effect. The man was a little puzzled at the interruption, but engaged her politely and non-committaly. But then the older Finnish lady sitting next to him got off at Union Square: this was the opportunity the short-haired chatterbox was looking for, and boy could she talk. She talked about her time at a monastery, about her successful development as a Buddhist, about how she "was happier than she'd ever been." And then she gave the guy her card in case he needed advice about his incipient Buddhism: it was all I could do to not ask her if she was trying to convert the guy or fuck him.
As an incipient Buddhist, the handsome young man went along with her enthusiasms, until she and I got off at the Bedford stop. Never have I seen a commuter as pushy as this short-haired Buddhist: she elbowed, she nudged, she rushed, she swore...
Ok, basically, this is like a Missed Connection, except I'm angry about this idiot and how her banal thoughts on Buddhism interrupted my reading time, so really, it's a Pissed Connection. And that's, dear readers, how a new regular blog feature is born. (If you send me your Pissed Connections, I will give you satisfaction. jonny@thelmagazine.com)
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