“Who He?” Brouhaha: Yin-Yang Rabble And A Ding Dong
or:
Unknown Outsider Causes Stir After Winning Buddhist Weblog Awards
So wow - this post about the time I spoke about my daughter’s school was awarded Post Of The Year in the 2007 Blogisattva Awards. The awards are there to “honour excellence in English-language Buddhist blogging during calendar year 2006.”
They said:
A chorus of “HAPPY!!!!!”: The award for Best Post of the Year goes to This Is This’s Cliff Jones’s irresistible “Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres” which tells of Cliff’s success teaching the meaning of Vesak to a class of winsome five year olds. In his post Cliff captures the essence of the five-year-olds’ experience and the adult experience dealing with the jumpy, trusty, loving minds of the cute-as-peaches very young. Vesak has never been explained more winningly to the gappy toothed nor with such toothsome brio to an older set, blog readers. A stunning achievement. Huzzah, Cliff!
I also won funniest post for this which owes more to Everton Football Club and a Vietnamese Zen master than anything else, but I guess not many posts can say that.
It’s humbling, validating and exciting all the same time, and I do see the irony of Buddhist awards, but you read this, so you might want to know what they said and hear how I’m getting on, which is why I mention it.
The award for Best Achievement with Humor in a Blog Post goes to Cliff Jones’s well rapped “Burrito” which appeared in his blog This Is This. “Burrito” is an economical post, told with gentle humor, which explains how a tasty burrito, sports fans and all of us “inter-are” – a term that Thich Nhat Hanh coined. Cliff’s examples of how things inter-are are sometimes whimsical. They include original insights on how we and everything are interlaced, entwined, transmogrified and bound in a tapestry of being [and, well, yeah, non-being, too, as well as being sharers of sights and sounds]. Zounds!
Congratulations to Bill Harryman for his Integral Options Cafe, which was named Blog Of The Year, and a big thanks to Tom Armstrong of Blogmandu, who ran the awards, for highlighting some excellent writing this year.
And yes, I know Yin and Yang are Chinese mythological and not Buddhist concepts, but the headline. Come on.
February 25th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Great funny headline! How old are you, exactly!? Ooo-ee-ooo-ah-ah! Your awards are well deserved. You should have gotten more! You should complain!!
February 25th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Well done Cliff - isn’t this the place for a tearfull speech where you thank all your readers?
Ungrateful bastard.
Love you
Guy
February 25th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Congratulations!
Actually, “Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres” is my favourite post of yours, too.
February 25th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Good work, Cliff.
I’m still waiting for that burrito.
February 25th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Tom - 35 and thank you (I guess)
Guy - I did that on Wednesday. Also, you can not love anyone.
Katy - Cheers!
Ed - Always, thanks. The burrito is off today.
February 25th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Many congrats - your writing deserves it
February 25th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
You know, I begin to suspect the nature of a Buddhist AWARD.
;)
February 25th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
*applauds*
February 26th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
ED, Lessening craving and attraction [part of Right (perhaps better translated as “Correct”) Mindfulness - the 7th step in the Eightfold Path] does not mean that Buddhists should deny that there some things that are better than other things. Nor should Buddhist fail to strive for excellence in the things they do.
It is difficult to find metrics to measure excellence in blogging, yet just from reading different posts, it is often easy to be aware of what is outstanding.
The Blogisattvas serve as an effort to bring to the fore examples of that which is wonderful. It is hoped that this will encourage Buddhist bloggers to think about their blogging practice and do their best in whatever manner best utilizes their skills and vision of what is good.
Of course, it is not good if Cliff gets a fat head about all this. [He is not likely to; he is ‘in on’ the Mom & Pop operation, without Mom, that determines the winners out of a garage upriver in California. Poor Cliff: He’s not even getting a big, smooth rock out of all of this.]
ALSO, there is the Buddhist principle of Sympathetic Joy, one of the Four Immeasurables. “Sympathetic joy is an unselfish, very positive mental attitude which is beneficial for oneself and others.” Thus, I think it is good for us to celebrate Cliff’s achievements!! And if having awards aids in that, hooray!
February 26th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Cliff,
I was just wondering how well known “Oo-ee-oo-ah-ah, ting-tang Walla Walla bing-bang” is nowadays. Isn’t that a song out of the 1950s!?
February 26th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Tom,
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
;)
February 27th, 2007 at 5:51 am
That’s right. Have everyone think I’m the insane one, here, in need of a Witch Doctor.
February 27th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
I’m a BAD READER and a worse friend. I’ve only just seen this post.
Well done, Cliff. Thanks for brightening our days.