My youngest son just asked for a diaper and bath. I finished what I was doing and started getting him cleaned up. As I was running the water I wanted to pass time.
I asked him “Kolob?” to sing him the hymn.
He sung his little “Nooo”
I asked him “Shine?” to sing him the song about Happy Jack.
He sung his little “Nooo”
I asked him “Story about the Monks?”
He said “Monks.” So I told him this story with a sufficient amount of embellishment to entertain him…
This is a story that I’ve liked since I first read it. “On one occasion Tanzan [a Zen Monk] was traveling with another Monk, Ekido, down a muddy road, where they met a beautiful girl in a fine silk kimono, unable to cross the intersection. Lifting her in his arms, Tanzan carried her across the road. Ekido did not speak to Tanzan until they reached a lodging temple that night, when he finally exploded angrily: ‘Monks do not go near females, especially young and lovely ones!’ ‘I left the girl there at the crossroads,’ replied Tanzan simply. ‘Are you still carrying her?’” (M. Conrad Hyers, Zen and the Comic Spirit (London: Rider and Co., 1973), 176-77.)
Latter Day Sinner 