Sitting and facing the wall in sesshin, following the breath, the mind still wanders.

I received an email newsletter today from a conservative advocacy group "debunking" the "myth" that water might become a scarce commodity in Atlanta. "What rubbish," I thought as I sat on the cushion. The author pointed out that all the water the City consumes from the Chattahoochee River is eventually returned to the river "just as clean as when it was withdrawn" following wastewater treatment. "Really?" I thought. Has this person seen the river downstream of Atlanta? Go to the Upper Chattahoochee River upstream of Atlanta, wade knee-deep into the water, and take a deep breath of the mountain air. Remember what that smells like. Next, get into your car, drive past the city, and stand by the river downstream of the R.M. Clayton Sewage Treatment Plant. Now take a breath but try not to gag, and for God's sake, don't actually go into the water, whatever you do! Hepatitis, e coli, cadmium, chromium, nitrates, hormones and other endocrine disrupters, etc. are all in there waiting on you. "Just as clean," my ass, I thought.

But what good is an imaginary argument with someone who's not even there? And why was I having this "argument" during sesshin? So I dropped that line of thought, but shortly afterwards I found myself thinking about my upcoming travel schedule. Drop those thoughts, and another set of associations pops up. Or my mind starts humming the bass line of a Miles Davis tune, something from "Jack Johnson," I think. Or I start wondering when the bell that marks the end of the sitting period will ring.

Mr. "Just As Clean" even tried to argue that the lack of natural soil cover in the urban environment was a good thing, resulting in more flow in the river, because it allowed rainfall to return to the river faster than the slow, cumbersome and inefficient natural method of percolating through the earth and returning to the river via groundwater. I guess it never occurred to him that "more flow in the river" is usually referred to as "flooding," and a lot of folks aren't too keen on that. But, oh, I noticed, I'm apparently back at the debate again.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the sesshin wasn't good, or that my sitting wasn't profound. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm just being honest here, and my sitting was in fact very quiet and focused precisely because I saw that these thoughts were coming up, and I just watched, and allowed them to go on, and sat with them, accepting, observant and compassionate.

Sesshin starts again in the morning. I need to go to sleep now.