My husband woke me up this morning with a nice piece of news he had just read in the morning paper (he gets up at 4:30 am everyday...I don't); the Dalai Lama will be coming to a university near us this Fall. My husband will buy me and my eldest daughter tickets to see him, and the news of the impending event has made my whole day.
My eldest daughter wants to be an author, and she already makes a lot of books that she illustrates herself. While I was in the hospital she brought me a book she had just made called "Buddha at the Hospital". I should really scan it in, but I'll settle for simply describing it to you right now:
Page 1: One day Buddha was sick (the picture shows Buddha, meditating in the lotus position, falling over and hitting his head...in the background incense is burning)
Page 2: He went to the hospital (in the picture he is being wheeled in a wheelchair, still sitting in the lotus position, into a hospital waiting room that has a plaque on the wall that says "Welcome to Buddha Medical Hospital")
Page 3: When he got to his room he read some rules (the picture shows him reading a sign titled "Safety Rules", and the safety rules include "No Smoking"...Buddha has a thought bubble that indicates that he is thinking "No Incense")
Page 4: Shortly after Buddha had sat down, some doctors came in with an IV (Buddha, still in the lotus position, is shown sitting by an IV cart with the disembodied hands of a doctor about to poke it into his arm)
Page 5: Buddha was allowed to go to the activity room but he had to take his IV with him (Buddha, wearing his IV and still in the lotus position, is playing ping-pong).
Page 6: Soon it was lunch time. "Meditation Macaroni" was served... (Buddha is sitting at a table set with flowers)
Page 7: "Soothing Soup" was for supper (Buddha is at the same table)
Page 8: And that is the story of when Buddha had to go to the hospital. But of course he turned out OK in the end. Now he is back at home. The End. (the picture shows Buddha meditating with a thought bubble that shows he is thinking "No incense, no incense, no incense...". In the background a canary sits in a cage singing, and the cage has a nameplate that shows that Buddha named the canary "Incense".
