Came across this today, made me think of our week, our feisty clashes with each other and with our characters in the pursuit of excellence, and finally of the wooden boards of Rollie and Marilyn's old store.
From "Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity," by Zen monk Soko Morinaga:
"This story (about a conflict between a master and disciple, resolved privately and silently between them) calls to mind the relationship between sumo wrestlers and the ring. The reason that two giant men, together weighting in at six or seven hundred pounds, can come together and wrestle, slamming all their might into the contest, is that there is a ring under them, which, like the bond between master and disciple, absolutely will not break. If a wrestler, however skillful, were to compete inside a ring drawn on ice, wouldn't he creep around, throwing all his effort instead into ensuring that the ice did not break?"