Wednesday, February 25, 2015

From Thunder to Trudging

There was so much thunder and lightning last night. It lit up the sky toward the sea and the land and didn't go away. Hours.
It wasn't near so I jumped into the pool in the dark and swam toward the ladder on the shallow end. Drying off amid the rumblings and flashes, I recalled walking with the Hare Krishna brigade. They'd paused to dance and chant in place and I'd gone on to meet Katrinka. As she and I walked back we passed them going the other way. Her iPhone was too full to take a short video. Then after an excellent dinner at Art Cafe, there they were again and we walked with them quite a ways back to our place as they offered treats, CDs, directions to their temple, and received rupiah donations. One difference was that this time I had a cloth bag of groceries we'd procured on the way. It was heavy enough that I had thrown it behind me, holding the straps with both hands over my shoulders, hunching over at times so my back could relieve my arms. It hadn't crossed my mind at the time but now, drying myself by the pool, I realized that none of those young, healthy, bouncing, blissed-out spiritual adepts had offered to help what must have obviously been a senior citizen among them struggling to carry his groceries home. This is a common sort of oversight for those of us who imagine we're following a superior path and who are trying to save others from their deluded suffering.

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