It was good to see Leon Stone at last Thursday’s meeting of the Less-Than-International Xtix Society. I start grinning inside when I see him coming because I know he is going to make me see a thing or two in Leon light.

You can hang around some people forever and two days and never get a new thought about anything. Their brains are locked in old ancient grooves full of clichés and notions that stumbled off Noah’s ark on crutches. But you cannot talk with Leon 10 minutes without some new insight popping like a soap bubble in front of your eyes.

At the meeting Thursday someone was talking about Hurricane Katrina’s devastation and the government’s pitiful response, when Leon said, “Give Bush credit for one thing: He squeezed a lot of Cajun chefs out of New Orleans, and they are now introducing people all over the country to some great food.”

That ability to find a pearl in every old muddy mussel shell is one of Leon’s specialties. It’s something I am trying to learn, and I need all the help I can get. My knuckles are sore from opening old shells and being unable to find a tiny pearl.

Then he said, “Same thing’s true about China invading Tibet. They forced an ancient and highly developed form of Buddhism out into the world.”

I thought, “It is a chilling thought to realize that we might never have met the Dalai Lama if this disaster had not come upon the Tibetan people.”

For me, he is one of the sparkling personalities on this planet. His mischievous smile and child-like laughter are the most powerfully positive energies I have felt since Norman Vincent Peale and John Popham.

I don’t know a lot about Buddhism, but I studied it when I was learning to meditate to lower my blood pressure. I came to see it not so much as a religion as a wonderful tool to tame the mind. One facet of taming the mind is developing the ability to find those pearls buried in mussels in the muddy bottom of the Tennessee River. Or believing the Chinese communists will some day be open to rebuilding the Buddhist temples they destroyed in Tibet.

There is not a doubt in my mind that the Dalai Lama believes that and is training other minds to expect it. Some people develop such an intense focus of their minds it is like a laser beam cutting through steel.

Two monks were walking a path that carried them through a creek with waist-high water. On the creek bank they found a young woman paralyzed with fear over crossing the creek. One monk said, “It would be a sin for me to carry you across.” The other monk just picked her up and carried her to the other side.

Two miles down the road the first monk said, “I cannot believe you put your hands on that young woman.” The second monk said, “Yes, I carried her across the creek but I set her down two miles ago and you are still carrying her.” The second monk saw a pearl of service in a situation where the other monk saw a temptation to lust.

My mother was a dedicated pearl finder. She seldom said anything negative about anyone. One day I was ribbing her about it and said, “You are always seeing good in people. Yet you never say anything good about the devil.”

It only took a second for her to come up with, “Well, son, he sure does stay busy.”

How the world needs people who see good possibilities in the dangers that surround us and sometimes blow away our cities and civilizations. How I want to become a bonafide, certified pearl finder.

That’s why I seek out friends like Leon.

E-mail Dalton Roberts at DownhomeP@aol.com.

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