ZENtheRapper 03/19/25

Book Discussed: Cosmic Joy & Local Pain: Musings of a Mystic Scientist, Published 1987, Written by Harold J. Morowitz.

It’s Spring Break in Champaign! For me, this is a time to adjust the dial away from selflessness and inch it towards the selfish side of things. Lots of reading and journaling. Less teaching.

My idea of relaxation usually involves a book and some bites, and today was no different. I had this sick book I had been reading almost finished, and I had ordered an Acai Bowl for myself. Being that it was Spring Break, Caffe Bene was more open than it usually is.

“Cosmic Joy & Local Pain” is this philosophical reflection by career Yale Biophysicist — Harold J. Harowitz — on the interconnectedness of life, where he argues for a planetary principle of life.

This book had some great ideas laid out in it that I will think about for some time. But the thing that really impressed me… was the author’s voice – how Morowitz was able to communicate such lofty ideas about the nature of reality as part of a memoir-feeling story. Throughout the entire book, he keeps it explicit for us that he is writing while on sabbatical, while exploring some of Earth’s most striking places around oceanic Hawaii. He’s on Spring Break just like me! The insights feel… local.

I look up from my book; I see a group of young black boys enter the coffee shop. There seemed to be about eight boys, ranging in age from maybe 6-12 years old. 

They head straight for the bathroom. Before I could finish fully seeing them, I saw the Asian-presenting cashier make a move from his post; following them to inform them that they would have to make a purchase to unlock the bathrooms for themselves there.

One of the boys comes up to me and asks me: “Can you buy me something so I can use the bathroom? He said I can’t use the bathroom unless we buying something.”

So, I walk the group over to the counter, and I kinda take control of the situation in a way that calms the agitated worker down, and in a way that starts to defuse and help organize my people there. 

“Aight so look: Yall gotta make a purchase to use the bathroom right? Let’s buy a big desert that y’all can split and share.. Which one of these looks good to y’all?”

“Wait.. you a YouTuber right???” I hear from one of the boys whose face I recognize, but whose name escaped me in the moment.

I struggle to hide my smile before giving him a simple, “Yes.”

We considered a few options, spending maybe two minutes total thinking and speaking, we: a small spectacle at the front of the store by now. I suggested the banana-bread-looking desert.

After a bit more thought, the group decided to audible their initial mission, and seek restroom elsewhere.

“Try McDonalds,” I offered them.

On the way out the door, the boy who recognized me as a YouTuber starts telling his crew – helping them understand – that they had just met a YouTuber. I guess it didn’t matter that I wasn’t a famous YouTuber yet. I’m not sure that I’ve ever called myself or considered myself “a YouTuber” before…

I graciously remind him… “I was ya music teacher too.”

A flood of realization poured over his then-beaming cheekbones:

“MR. ZEN!!”

Couldn’t quite hold back the smile here…

“Can I rap for yall real quick?”

They wanted to hear it. So in the middle of Caffe Bene, in the middle of this hipsterry, college-town coffee shop, after that initial fiasco that happened when they first entered, I conjured a little bit of courage – and wind! – and rapped “According to Legend” for them and for the audience of fifteen or so college students who were there eating/working at the time. Guess no one told them it was Spring Break.

As the group of boys walked out the door, I learned that the oldest of the crew was a student at the school I currently teach at.

I closed the performance, showed them my YouTube Channel, and then quietly resumed my post, reading at a table there.

A parting quote from Cosmic Joy & Local Pain, Harold J. Morowitz:

“The cosmic grandeur of the universe does not spare us from local pain… The universe is a strange mixture of cosmic joy and local pain. Within five seconds I had experienced both.”

Local Pain indeed.

Thank You For Reading 🙏🏾

ZENtheRapper ☀️♾️