Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

To Be a Dinosaur

Edmonton, Alberta

The woman next to me on the WestJet flight looked out the window in disbelief. There was snow covering the flat land of Edmonton. “I’m just wearing my flip flops,” she said indicating her unpreparedness for the unusual cold for late May. I was also not so ready for this. It restricted me from walking this day. I did manage to pull off a few extra yogic back stretches (indoors) to address muscle spasms in the lower back.

I sat for a minute contemplating on the machinery or my body. I’m contending with watery red eyes, a poison ivy rash on the right arm which is mildly spreading and a stiff lower back. “Welcome to this physical world with all its quirks,” I thought. “Its inevitable being here going down the road of this material world with its interesting twists and turns. It doesn’t help feeling sorry for myself. “I am just going through passing phases, part of which is aging,” I thought.

I had spoken to an elementary school teacher and friend on the phone from Windsor. Tom has been teaching for twenty-one years. He was expressing how his students see him as a dinosaur being in his late fifties (like me). For his own consolation he sprang back and exclaimed, “kids like dinosaurs!”

I admit that his remark cheered me up as he always does especially at the end of any of our telephone conversations. Tom always takes advantage of my role as a monk and asks, “Hey, can you put in a good word to the big chief Vishnu for me?”

“I sure will try, “I said with such positive exchange I jumped and splashed in the pool of optimism reminding myself that I am not this body but since I must live in it let me live up to 108 and continue to render services to others. Let me become a dinosaur.