Excerpt: The Duke of Sunrises

Sam sat on his cushion, face to the wall in the darkened room. Eyes closed, sitting in as close to a lotus position as he could muster with his rickety complaining knees, he tried to empty his mind.
"Breathing in I am one with this moment. Breathing out I am one with this moment." He thought of the girl he saw walking into the meditation class with him, sitting somewhere behind him... he chastened himself silently, feeling foolish for not concentrating, feeling foolish for being in a darkened room staring at the wall, feeling foolish for even thinking he could be a person who could do something as advanced as meditating.
This wasn't working. Sam decided to change to counting breaths.
"One... two... three... four... One... two... three... four... And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? I don't care and I don't give a damn, next stop is a-Viet Nam". Sam shifted in his seat, embarrassed at the unmanagability of his mind.

The whole point of taking this meditation class was to try to learn to discipline his mind. Sam's sponsor had pointed out how Sam's inability to be in the moment he was in, to fully feel the present, was one of the roots of Sam's problems. Sam knew this to mean that not being present had led directly to Sam fucking up his relationship with Denise. And Tammy. And Megan and Mary and Carol.... It made work a nightmare-- he was always three conversations behind or two clients ahead. He had terrific ideas but was bad at following through because he would never get the details down.
So now he was coming to the Buddhist center to sit Zazen three times a week. Sam had to admit that it was making an improvement-- he could actually pay attention for a whole 30 seconds.
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The wedding of Tommy Song and Rhee Myung Ran had been very small. They had decided to get married in the Arlington Korean Baptist Church. The day before the wedding, Tommy Song and Rhee Myung Ran had gone to the Arlington Courthouse with all of their papers to get a marriage license. There was some confusion at the courthouse, as Tommy told the clerk that Rhee Myung Ran was a widow. The clerk had asked for a death certificate for Rhee Myung Ran’s husband. Instead, Rhee Myung Ran presented the clerk with a divorce certificate. Tommy did not ask Rhee Myung Ran why she had a divorce certificate while they were still in the courthouse. He decided that he had better not say anything until later.
When Tommy Song and Rhee Myung Ran walked out of the courthouse, Myung Ran began to cry. Tommy Song was not sure what to do. So he took Rhee Myung Ran in his arms and he held her. It was the first time he had held her since they had met. And Tommy Song whispered something to Rhee Myung Ran: “It is all right. I don’t care. The clerk made a mistake, that is all. We will be married tomorrow. Please, I would like it very much if you would smile.”
Myung Ran had raised her head and looked Tommy Song in the eyes. And a small smile crept onto her lips.
The next day Tommy Song and Rhee Myung Ran were married in the Arlington Korean Baptist Church. And Tommy never asked Myung Ran about her first husband or the divorce certificate ever again.