Sweet

The tender gravity of kindness says howdy hi howdy ho.

Buddhist Khmer are soft and gentle. They live in the now. Present.

Their challenge is to focus on more than one thing at a time. This unpleasant fact is illuminated by their dopamine addiction to phones. FOMO - fear of missing out.

Text me baby, I feel alone and alienated in a mean old world. 

Gadgets make great babysitters.

For the majority it’s about entertainment distractions vs knowledge.

Relationships here are like adopting a child.

All the adults need childlike supervision.

After serving and clearing breakfast dishes three happy female housekeeping staff go to the garden.

#1 you sweep leaves into a pile.

#2 you brush them into the plastic container.

#3 you dump them into the black plastic bag. Repeat through the garden. Same when cleaning rooms. Everyone has one clear task and one clear task only the lonely. Consistency is a challenge.

Earth is a precious garbage dump. Plastic Styrofoam food containers, bags, cups, straws litter soil and water.

The world is a village.

Mandalay

You can take the people out of the village but you can’t take the village out of the people. They have green Environment Awareness garbage trucks. It all ends up somewhere. Garbage in - garbage out.

Everyone speaks at once. Comprehension and intelligent conversations develop. In Laos it is loud and louder. Here the loudest one is the big winner.

Cognitive dissonance loves attention span, memory and reasoning.

Milling and crowding around is an art form like wild animals in a feeding frenzy. Indecision breeds a new generation of passive anxious consumers. This has nothing to do with tropical heat affecting DNA or innate Buddhist spirituality.

Let go or get dragged along...in Burma.

Spin Your Wheels

I have a spaceship here in SR.

It’s disguised as an old reliable small black Japanese made folding bike with 20” wheels and five gears.

It cost 50 bones a year ago at the used bike market across town or, if space travel is your lingo, across the universe. It’s fun to spin the wheels.

Considering many Khmer vehicle operators have a death wish, riding the bike is more akin to playing Russian roulette in traffic. Slow is the mantra.

While walking is the preferred way to travel especially for street photography the bike is fun.

Every kid needs a bike.

Like Laos, it’s a motorcycle culture here with many young immature zombies talking on phones while driving at high speeds.

Caution is advised. Traffic laws are nonexistent.

You do see the occasional partial roadblock by police when they stop drivers w/o helmets.

The tender gravity of kindness says howdy hi howdy ho.

Buddhist Khmer are soft and gentle. They live in the now. The advantage is being present.

The challenge for them is to focus on more than one thing at a time. This unpleasant fact is illuminated by their dopamine addiction to phones + everyone talking at once w/o comprehension. Embrace chaos.

Gadgets make great babysitters.

For the majority it’s about entertainment distractions not information.

Relationships here are like adopting a child.

All the adults need childlike supervision.