Vandalism
This morning I had to start thinking about an emotion I don’t feel very often: rage! I believe that rage is intrinsically tied to the lack of understanding of somebody else’s action (as in stupid driving behaviour, etc.)
The cause for my rage (Diane’s reaction was closer to shock) was somebody’s inexplicable urge for destruction, taken out on our zen garden and teahouse sign.
It takes a lot of destructive energy (in the form of physical strength) to move this rock - we know because we moved it there in the first place. What is the satisfaction one gets from destroying something that somebody is obviously very fond of maintaining? 
And what can we make of the urine markings? Are we dealing with dogs that mark their territory?
We are left with a feeling of emptiness and disillusion. Why can people not respect or acknowledge beauty. Do people not see it? I guess a zen garden is a somewhat subtle form of landscaping, but would you really have any trouble recognizing this as an area that doesn’t invite trampling and destroying?
Minor levels of destruction are a week-to-week occurrence when we arrive at the teahouse in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays.
Urinating against our walls or trampling through the zen garden are the things we have to deal with almost every week. But usually, we don’t face this sort of obvious malevolent behaviour.
Now, at the end of the day, my rage has disappeared and is replaced by sadness. Sadness, that people feel inclined to destroy what they don’t understand instead of trying to understand it. Sadness about the fact that so much of our planning, labour and care go completely unnoticed or ignored and the knowledge that it will be just a little harder tomorrow to gather our enthusiasm…