Update: see comments.

TRANSITIONS

My parents’ Buddhist teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, used to come and visit my school when I was a child (he asked parents to always treat their children with respect, and so we were never called “kids,” but always “children”). My mother, a teacher at the Vidya Elementary School (lucky me), used to tell me how Trungpa Rinpoche would come and sit in a classroom, observing, seemingly bored, uninterested.

And then the class would break for a new class, or for recess, and he’s sit bolt upright, eyes wide open, taking everything in with passionate attention.

My mom or someone asked him why he was seemingly uninterested in the classes—what school is about—and so interested in the four minute break periods.

He replied: “it’s in transitions that you see where people’s minds are at.”

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One of my favorite green-minded (truly, all about farm to table) restaurants recently sold to a new restaurant in Boulder. The new restaurant, I’m happy to say, is also green-minded, and it’s being started up by a bunch of young restauranteurs, entrepreneurs. I consider myself fortunate to have such a new, hip restaurant coming to my neighborhood.

And so I was dismayed, this morning, when walking by the ongoing renovation (one would hope, greenovation) of the old restaurant into its new incarnation when I saw two of the old place’s perfectly good doors laying in, and around, the trash behind the restaurant. One door had already had its glass smashed in.

Green isn’t a fad. It’s more than a way to get a few more folks to patronize your establishment. It’s a state of mind: wanting to enjoy life, and take responsibility for what we do in that life. You could call it karma. Or you could call is conservation. Or you could call it caring about the next seven generations.

And so I have one thing to ask these new restauranteurs, who are seeking to do the right thing: raise the bar. Walk your talk.

And: it’s not too late: bring those doors to ReSource.