During the debate, Brokaw asked a question of the candidates which he described as having a Zen-like quality, something like "What don't you know now and how would you find it out?"

Now, Zen does not mean "somewhat paradoxical" or "kinda deep". Zen is a form of Buddhism in which, like other forms of Buddhism, you sit cross-legged until your knees really hurt and, if you're lucky, this makes you less likely to flip out and yell at someone at the craps table. If the questions, and answers, really had a "Zen-like" quality, the debate would have gone more like this:

Brokaw: Why did Nixon go to China?

Obama: Flown.

McCain: Maverick.

Brokaw: You useless skin bags will never attain the ultimate question like this. [shakes sleeves]

Or

Brokaw: What is this? [pointing to a values voter]

Obama: A values voter.

Brokaw: I hit you thirty times. [to McCain] What is this?

McCain: Not a values voter.

Brokaw: Even this one has been fooled.

Or

Brokaw: What is truth that goes beyond the words of the Buddhas and patriarchs?

McCain: Pie.

Obama: [hits the floor with the palm of his hand]

[Brokaw drives McCain and Obama off the stage with a stick]

Brokaw: [to the audience] This valuable human life is short. You will never attain the Way suspending your campaign or clinging to guns and religion. Pay attention. [walks off stage]

"Pie" is always a good answer. A better answer, actually, than any McCain has offered so far. Although, sadly, in an actual debate it would be: "Pie... my friends."

You are all fools!

You should know that the definitive answer is, and always shall be: 42

Reptilicus wrote the following post at 10/09/2008 8:51 PM:

Is it "pie"....or is he saying "pi"????

Now that's a good question! Pie is really yummy, but pi, well, that probably qualifies as truth beyond the Buddhas and patriarchs.

Maybe he meant both! That would be so Zen*.

* In the same way that rain on one's wedding day would be so ironic.

You should know that the definitive answer is, and always shall be: 42

But what's the question? Is it "How many roads must a man walk down"?

anxiousmofo:

In the same way that rain on one's wedding day would be so ironic.

pfffft. A little too ironic. I really do think.

Mmmmm pie...

I like ice cream, but I have no koan.

NightSwimmer:

Mmmmm pie...

Man, why wasn't there an internets when I used to smoke dope? I R teh old.

I told my five-year-old daughter and a friend of hers that when I was a kid, there weren't any cars. We couldn't afford horses, so dogs pulled us around on sleds with wheels. All the houses were made of mud. There were still dinosaurs and woolly mammoths. Mammoths washed our dishes by spraying water on them from their trunks. Eventually, they figured out I was pulling their legs.

Then, I told her that when I was a kid, there was no such thing as the Internet. There weren't any laptops which you could watch DVDs on. There weren't any DVDs. There were videotapes, but we didn't have a VCR until I was almost a teenager. We had a black and white television. We didn't have phones that could fit in our pockets. We even had a phone that was nailed to the wall! Their eyes got wide.

"Really? Is it true you didn't have the Internet?"

"Is it really true that there was no such thing as Dora the Explorer?"

"There was too the Internet. You're joking."

I'm so old!

You should know that the definitive answer is, and always shall be: 42

But what's the question? Is it "How many roads must a man walk down"?
******************************­******************************­**********

And as that ultimate Zen guide, the Hitchhikers's Guide, will tell you -- its ALL about finding the right question ;)