Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Clown and Monk

Toronto, Ontario

We have all heard the saying that the whole world loves a clown. I think that the phrase could be "the whole world loves a monk" and not that there is anything in common between the two professions. I say this in regards to the public affinity for the renounced person. I can give testimony.

I took to an afternoon walk near the old Brickworks Factory. The trails out in that area are really great. So were the encounters with people; joggers, cyclists and walkers. The warm greetings may have something to do with the decent weather, its holiday time or just the fact that the natural environment becomes conducive for amiable exchange.

I do believe it's more than that. If it is your intent to be friendly then the reciprocation will come. In other words if you send out warmth then it will come back to you. It becomes interesting to see who sends it first. It's kind of a warm bombing that goes on. You just have to have the ammunition ready before blasting it off. In any event people seemed real cheerful with the monk – me.

After a two hour trek, I stepped into a drama practice for an upcoming performance of "Krishna, the Eighth Boy" at Meadowvale Theatre. I was conducting the practice when I saw that one of the devotee actors could push out more emotions and feelings of wonder because his part called for it. To help him an idea came to mind. We imagined, "Let's be cavemen who spent our whole life in primitive darkness. We were somehow discovered by civilized man (so-called) and put into the room where we were practicing and were let loose to explore."

The three of us who went through the pretense of wonder and discovery through analyzing textures, colours, soft foam, light switches and what they do, did bring out the excitement I was looking for. Just as we were wrapping up our little exercise on one of our monks from Assam poked his head over to look at us. He was curious about us after hearing the sounds of wonder which came in the form of grunts, mostly. He had a good laugh and so did we. I guess he thought we were clowning around.

Hmmm! Perhaps the gap between clown and monk had closed.

9 KM