Zen Dictator…A Year in the Life (Updated with a request)

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I thought a fun way to celebrate a year in the life of Docudharma would be to try and capture the various iterations of our own Zen Dictator over that time. This proves to be a bit of a challenge since, to my counting, he has published about 458 essays since the launch of the blog one year ago. But themes do emerge – at least they did to me. So I take the credit and blame depending on how well you think I may have captured all this.

I’m going to be completely dismissive of all the political essays Buhdy has produced. There are hundreds of them (I didn’t bother to count) taking on the issues of the day as any self-respecting progressive blogger is wont to do. But I’m going to focus on the other sides of our dear leader here. Some are serious and some are just for fun (I’ll let you decide which is which).

First of all, we have Buhdy the fiction-writer as seen in his (temporarily, we hope) suspended series titled Iglesia. If you click on that link, you’ll see that he has written 57 episodes in the last year. WOW!

While they are political and I said I wasn’t going to “do” those, one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Buhdy’s writing are his rants on Republicans. His latest installment, Vote Republican is, in my mind, the best of the genre.

Of course, who can forget The Maddow Movement? I certainly can’t, seeing as how I now get to watch her regularly make sense of the nonsense. Congratulations Buhdy on a brilliant idea!!!!

Some might have forgotten that it was early on in the life of the blog that Buhdy embraced the need for a Zen Dictator. We’ve seen that need re-emerge occasionally in the last year…but frankly, not that often. And I think most of you will agree with me that he’s done so with fairness and grace.

Of course, the need to be the Zen Dictator has led to several iterations of Buhdy Whines wherein he gets honest with us about his struggles with all of this.

The blog got “hot” on a couple of occasions when Buhdy delved into the forbidden territory of sex. And no, you will not hear me admit that these were some of my favorites of his essays. I, after all, have a reputation to uphold.

Also temporarily suspended (we hope) are Buhdy’s Friday night ventures into the Funkalicious. That particular one is in keeping with the above mentioned “hotness” of the blog on Valentine’s Day.

There is a final iteration of our Zen Dictator that is perhaps my favorite. I don’t know what to call these, but occasionally he waxes wise on the state of human nature. For example:

Casual Musings on the Common Good

The Real Problem Is…

O The Huge Manatee

The Fool

Humans Only Change Through Crisis

But perhaps my favorite of all time: Eating the Bitter.

And now, before we end this little walk down memory lane, a bit of a Buhdyphotorama.

Happy Anniversary Buhdy…and THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

For all of you who have appreciated Buhdy and Docudharma over this last year, think about hitting that “Donate” button on the right and sending him some love. We need to keep the Zen Dictator online!