Andrea Miller's Shambala Sun interview with Mary Pipher (famous to this mother of girls for her groundbreaking book, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls), "Is this the worst Buddhist in the world?," caused me to google a bit, bringing me to Brian Lehrer's WNYC radio interview with her in 2009. The occasion for the interviews: Pipher's new book, Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World, where instead of writing insightfully about others, she writes about herself. Haven't read the book but, if you want a self-reflective laugh, i.e. I could identify embarrassingly, go to about minute 6 in the youtube video... and here's an excerpt from the magazine interview that reddens the face as well:
Why do you call yourself “the worst Buddhist in the world?”
It came from a remark my husband made to me. One day, after meditating for forty-five minutes, I started listening to NPR. I was also dialing United Airlines to make some changes to an itinerary and stir-frying some onions for a stew and, at the same time, while I was on hold, I asked my husband if he’d done the two or three things I’d asked him to do that day. He was reading the paper, trying to relax, and he said, “You’re the world’s worst Buddhist.”
