Sijadasi: The Art of Yes

Nice one, Tom.

I’m no Buddhist, but you must have a mantra even if you don’t call it as such. I have two.

One is quite lengthy, but it serves to calm my nerves when I go into a panic or become overwhelmed with some other pesky emotion like anger, frustration, or worry. It’s the entirety of The Nations of the World as sung by Yakko Warner of Animaniacs fame. My co-workers know more about geography than any other waitstaff on the planet.

The other is much simpler. It’s sijadasi. That’s the word Yes in each of the five foreign languages I’ve studied: Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, and American Sign Language. Two notes about its pronunciation:

1. It is pronounced with your clenched fist raised to shoulder level, thumb across your knuckles, and your wrist flexing up and down. If this confuses you, go back and read the list of languages one more time.

2. Its verbal pronunciation is exactly the same as the words “Sea Odyssey,” one of my flimsy romantic fantasies, flimsy because I get seasick faster than the fastest peristaltic roller coaster letting loose with its sour alimentary volleys.

So here begins my personal sijadasi, the spill of my thoughts dislodged by symbolic mantric chanting.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm……………………………………