Learning Curve

Namaste,

Being a student is a tough assignment. 6th and 7th grade. English, religions of the world, history.

He walks through the monsoon now, sooner or later.

I am not your mother, father or nanny.

Pay attention. Stay on task.

Focus on student production. Request feedback.

It's not how long you are here, it's the amount of work you do. 

Coming down.

Welcome to the tropics. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller.

..."One walks the streets knowing that he is mad, possessed, because it is only too obvious that these cold, indifferent faces are the visages of one's keepers. Here all boundaries fade away and the world reveals itself for the mad slaughterhouse that it is. The treadmill stretches away to infinitude, the hatches are closed down tight, logic runs rampant, with bloody cleaver flashing."

Student ideas. What do you want to learn? How will you improve your English and general education?

Learn how to feed yourself.

Metta.

Transition

Namaste,

He received an offer to be a student in a private school in Laos. 82 days after applying from Nepal. High to low elevations.

She spoke specifics. Grade 7 history. Grade 6 social studies. They need to understand more of the world.

He said, it's a small world. Let's paint it. She said, bring your palette. We provide paints. Students need to understand more of themselves, our small significant way in the world. Yes, we do. Thank you. 

He shifted from Cambodia to Laos. A prop jet in clouds.

He sits near the Mekong. Deep, wide and fast. Ride a bike through mud. Delicious. Follow your bliss.

Engage, study, activate.

Metta.

Park it

Where do I park this empty vehicle,

asked a Tibetan monk

burning corpses

after an earthquake killed 2,686 people

in a remote village at 13,000 feet.

A child survivor ate cigarettes,

and paper napkins

drinking his urine to survive.

Life is found in a desperate situation.

Disaster gave the Chinese Party Propaganda

machine a glorious opportunity

to create a new Hero and promote being One People.

amygdala

Namaste,

Survivors were willing victims of their fear, uncertainty, doubt, adventure and surprise.

Their amygdala, a small almond shaped brain structure validated to be involved in fear and emotional response fired up. 

Manipulated by their collective unconscious and the system of socialization control mechanisms and the subtle power of right wing conservative persuasion and media idiots, they either wanted control or approval facing this daily grinding, mind numbing, heart breaking choice.

They struggled, suffered, danced, experiencing gratitude and forgiveness in their heart.

They lived and died. 

It’s essential to die at least once while you’re alive and get it out of the way.

An engraved Zippo lighter in a dusty Saigon museum cabinet, buried under service ribbons read, “You only die twice. Once when you’re born and when you face Death.”

Metta.

Loving August

Namaste,

August may be cruel. She may be kind. 

Here in Coma-Land, somewhere below the equatorial zone it is the rainy season. Coming down. Sheets.

What it is. Two seasons. Dry and wet.

Laundry hangs itself. Why does laundry hang itself? Poverty? Lack of initiative? Boredom? For the same reason the juvenile boy facing glass across the street passively performs circular tedious rag motions on a glass door.

His decrepit grannie living upstairs waiting to die a glorious peaceful death will inspect it. If her old tired gray eyes see one dancing smudge she'll begin screaming, Clean it again, Clean it again. He will hang his head.

In shame.

Listening class is permanently cancelled.

Around and around we go. Where we stop no one knows. If he knew the end game he'd cease breathing. He'd hang with laundry. He'd go to school. Too expensive. Yeah, yeah. 

Dirt roads are now expansive expensive elaborate esoteric lakes. Welcome to the lake district. Take the long way home. Endless landscape shrines are a luminous green. Eat it with your eyes, said Saigon.

Metta.