A long time friend in the Dharma wrote me the other day speaking about his enforced down time due to chronic back pain.

He reports: During the last few weeks I have had to drop, one by one, all my plans for the immediate and medium term future as it became clear that I was going to be out of action for some time. Actually, dropping things can be quite a therapeutic activity in itself as I'm sure you know.

And then he went on to say: My other therapeutic activity has been lying in bed listening to Gilbert and Sullivan operas on a personal CD player. "In a contemplative fashion/ and a tranquil frame of mine/ Free from every kind of passion/ some solution let us find. (Gondoliers).

Here is the full verse sung by all:

In a contemplative fashion,

And a tranquil frame of mind,

Free from every kind of passion,

Some solution let us find.

Let us grasp the situation,

Solve the complicated plot —

Quiet, calm deliberation

Disentangles every knot.
Gondoliers, Gilbert and Sullivan Act 11