Today began early as we roused the troops to make a 5:40am river boat tour before travelling for several hours to oir next destination in San Jose. Suffice it to say that I was not up to the challenge this morning and allowed myself to speak and act in anger rather than keeping cool. And, as I’m sure many of you can appreciate, once the flood gates were open it was hard to crank them shut again.
Most of the day was spent trying to put the genie back in the bottle and I must admit to not being very successful. The theme today and cause of much of my irritation were the myriad decisions my wife made about our, most of which I disagreed with on points of principle as well as for practical reasons. It seemed that we were at loggerheads all day with each new juncture a point of contention. At times like this I often wonder what the Lord Buddha would say and, try as I may, I can never come up with a good analog from the canon. So, what is the Dhammic way to approach a situation where you have to live with what you consider to be another person’s bad decisions? Once you have expressed your diference of opinion and have realized that nothing short of a full scale revolt will suffice to change the course of things what do you do? Simply roll over? Try to be firm without bavking down or giving into anger? I just can’t seem to figure this one out.
Cattāri Brahmavihārā 
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