One thing that is always true around Zen Center is that if you have done something once, unless you make an almighty cock-up of it, someone will ask you to do it again. At Tassajara, at the beginning of every practice period, former doans are drafted in to ring bells, be kokyo and soku, until the new batch can be trained up. It is a nice way to relive things you used to enjoy, and if you didn't enjoy them in the first place, there is the consolation that it is only temporary.
Romy the fukaten has been asking me for some time to show her how to make pancakes. It is a hard thing to schedule when I am in the zendo every morning, so interim is the ideal time. I wouldn't call myself much of an expert at this - I only did it once when I was in the kitchen at Tassajara - but as tenzo I probably did it half a dozen times, and then have showed other people how to do it. And it really isn't rocket science either. The main skill involved is getting all the other elements of breakfast taken care of so that once you fire up the grill, you can just focus on flipping. I think the essentials were transmitted this morning; I started off, and then left Romy to it, and we had a couple of hotel pans of tasty pancakes by seven fifteen, which, of course, people were excited to eat.
Now, at the risk of returning to find things not done for tomorrow, I am going to take off on my bike for another ride in the sunshine.
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