Monday, June 9th, 2008

Mon. June 9th, 2008 - Toronto, Ontario

There are an increasing number of people riding bikes with bags overhanging their sides. The contents are primarily collected empty liquor bottles and pop and beer cans. An oriental woman carried her hefty stock of recycling from home garbage bin to garbage bin to home garbage bin. A caucasian man did the same, only he was more sophisticated in his collecting. The route I chose for this morning's walk was a back lane road near our temple. There I saw the man dismount his bike, walk over to a high wooden fence at the rear of a Yonge St. business/residence, slid a pallet along the fence to be used as a ladder and climbed over the business/residence property to pull out more collectibles for recycling. This act looked routine. When walking you get to see these things up close.

I also observed a young man who left his bike to stand near a tree while he took to a form of tree worship. While the world is buzzing about ensnared in the rat race, some folks are carrying on in a seemingly different existence. I like to think that chanting mantras on my beads is such an existence millions of light years away.

Apart from the madness of the Monday morning revving of the world I see the piece of heaven in the stupendous gardens and landscapes of our neighborhood. There exists an incredible dualism in this world.

7km