The Zen Martial Artist

Woodcut of my friend Conrad.

My friend Conrad Romo is a lifelong salesman who’s hocked everything from pens to chimney cleaning services to fresh meat to computer diskettes. He’s also a devout practitioner of Zen Buddhism who studies at the Zen Center in midtown Los Angeles.

A few years back, the Zen Center experienced a series of break-ins by a convicted sex offender. The perpetrator (who turned out to be an ex-student of the Center) entered the…