My Pink Gun Case

When I go to the shooting range I bring my two favorite handguns, a Colt .45 1991A1 and my Ruger Vaquero .45LC. I get a lot of looks from the other guys there shooting there, not because my Old School choice of guns are anything special or I’m some kind of marksman. I get looks because I put my Vaquero in a pink gun case.

My pink gun case is one of those soft suede zipper cases with furry inside, commonly called a “gun-rug” because you can open it flat and lay your gun on it so it doesn’t get blemished. It’s not a soft, cotton candy pink mind you, it’s a deep magenta pink. But it is pink.I bought my pink gun case from a gun store for $5. It was in the cheap-stuff bin. If it came in brown or tan or even green it would have cost around $25, but this one was only $5. I examined it to see if it was ripped or dirty or maybe the zipper was broken. But it was in perfect brand new condition.

I brought it up to the counter and asked, “This is five bucks, what’s wrong with it?” He answered, “It’s pink.” I was a little dumbfounded, you see when I picked it up I didn’t even realize it was pink, well I saw it was pink but it didn’t seem like an issue. I said, “I’ll take it!” While he was ringing it up he said I could probably dye it black and then it would be perfect. I told him I would probably just leave it alone.

Not long after that I had gone to the range before going to work. I had an ammo can with four of my handguns inside it and I was showing off my guns to a regular who comes to the shop. He is also a gun enthusiast. When I opened the can and took out the pink gun case all he could saw was, “A pink gun case? You have a pink gun case?” Even while I pulled the gun from it to show him all he could say was, “pink gun case?”

Well, I like my pink gun case, right now it has tattoo machines in it, but when I need it for the range I take the machines out and put my gun in. And I still get amazed that people can’t believe I go to the shooting range with a pink gun case.

Me and Zen

When I was in High School I was in English 11 revisited. It was a class for all us 12th graders who failed out of English the year before. (In my case I failed English in 9th and was always one year behind.) We had a really cool, young teacher named Mr. Kennedy. For one of our assignments we had to read a book and write a book report. We could pick any book we wanted, as long it came out of a box full of books the teacher had.

There were about a dozen of us in the class and we gathered around the box looking for the coolest title. Mr. Kennedy called me over. He was holding a book in his hand and he said, "I want you to read this one" and handed it to me. I just stared at the cover, the book was called Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. I must have seemed a little bit reluctant, but he assured me that I would really like it so I said "ok". I figured if he singled me out for this book there must be something really good in it that he wanted me to read.

I read the story and loved it! It was a great story and I thought about it often throughout my life. Siddhartha and Beowulf, which I first read in the 7th grade, were now my two favorite stories. Beowulf became a sort of bible for me and I made Norse Paganism a part of my life, but I never really gave Zen Buddhism much thought past the story of Siddhartha. Years later I read a lot of Aikido books. I wasn't really concerned with Aikido as a martial art as much as the spiritual side of the art. Morihi Ueshiba became a hero of mine, along with Beowulf, Siddhartha and Manfred Von Richtoffen. (Talk about diversity!)

What really appealed to me about Zen is that it doesn't ask you to denounce the gods of your chosen faith. I could add Zen to my life, without changing my religion. After reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Persig is when I really decided to take Zen more seriously. But I didn’t really get a full understanding of Zen until my anger issues and steroid abuse almost caused me to lose my wife and my little girls. Zen helped me change my life for the better. I’m in the middle of writing a book about my change called, The Broken Buddha. (Which was the inspiration for this blog.)

A lot of people might interpret Zen in a different way than I do. A lot of people who feel they have achieved Satori might say I’m on the wrong path. That’s ok because I never got interested in Zen for Satori or Enlightenment. I practice Zen in my own way, I meditate while I’m working, doing a tattoo, building a tattoo machine, welding a garden ornament or painting with oil paints. After all, the Buddha did say, “Be a light unto yourself”