A Bad Case of the Puns

Cathleen Falsani's column about the Rev. Koyo Kubose has some pretty clever intentional bathroom humor, but I think that the funniest line in the story was the unintentional pun in the last line of this excerpt:

"I sure am thankful my inner plumbing is working," Kubose, director of the Kubose Dharma Legacy in Skokie, writes in his new book, Bright Dawn: Discovering Your Everyday Spirituality. "Giving thanks before eating is a common practice, but we should also be thankful for the important excretion process. Elimination of toxic waste products resulting from digestion of food is crucial to maintaining life."

In other words, and to paraphrase, holy s---.

After saying, "To me, BM can also stand for 'Buddha Movement,'" Kubose waxes eloquent for a couple of pages on that particular scatological term, reclaiming its Buddhist intent, which has something to do with the transitory nature of the body.

"The privacy of a bathroom is a great place for quiet reflection," Kubose continues. "I think about how my morning hygiene routine has become part of a daily spiritual practice. I like that. The bathroom's cozy privacy brings out intimate conversations that one can have with oneself.

"The bathroom can be a very powerful sacred space."

Kubose's slim volume recounts his early-morning runs along Chicago's lakefront in which every action he takes, from bed to sidewalk, is a meditation.

At least I think it was unintentional.