Tues. Nov.11/08 - Toronto, Ontario
There is something quiet about today. Oh yes! Many businesses will be closed and it will be a time of sobriety, reflection, memories, stories of bravery, courage, death, and hope.
As I had walked a section of Yonge St. quite early at 2:50am chanting on beads I found I could be heard, let’s say, a half a block away with no disturbance and rarely a pedestrian to be seen. I paced by endless clothing shops, taverns, banks,, physic reading outlets, restaurants, sex shops and I thought how all this is rather irrelevant to the truth. On this day, Remembrance Day when veterans of ghastly wars are honored for their sake of sacrifice I find it a world of dichotomy. Much later I had asked one of the monks in the temple to pick up for me a newspaper in the evening. Yes monks do read newspapers from time to time. There’s a need to know what’s going on in the world outside the sheltered temple and ashram (monastery). Big news is that Bush and Obama met in the Oval room of the White House to discuss transition. But the stories that really captivated me and pulled my heart strings were the personal war stories by veterans who went through so much. My dad used to tell of stories in Holland when it was under Nazi control. Those were times when people prayed and really did help each other as much as there was dissension, which is what war is all about.
I always relish reading the battle events in the epic, “Mahabharata”. Those events tell of an ancient battle and the curse that comes along with glory. There is always two worlds where we live on earth.
9 Km
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