Wednesday, July 15th, 2015

Wednesday, July 15th, 2015

St. Louis, Missouri

First Time

It’s my first time to St. Louis. We rolled in with our buses after a tough sixteen hours drive. At the first opportunity, I took to checking out the town on foot. I had other options. The youth were driven to the Arch, a high elevation point for viewing the surroundings of the city, farmland and planes flying low spraying the crops for bugs.

I went for walking the university grounds. The buildings are impressive. I love the sculptures. I ventured off to The Old Fox Theatre which I had been told about. The facade is adorable. Art Deco style? And people are friendly, like the guy in the Wal-mart who looked at me, looked again and said, “Hey man, you look like the Dalai Lama."

Like anywhere in the world, every place is a scenario of mixed karma. Manoram, our youth minister for the Hare Krishna movement and who heads up this travelling tour, mentioned to me that the infamous Trail of Tears began here. In my mind’s eye I visualize a row of rejected natives who were forced to that trail during winter circumstances. Out of the 40,000 that were forced to head west for unfamiliar territory only 4,000 survived. I get angry thinking about it. I walked passed Monsanto Hall with inner rage enhanced. To resolve this emotion I must let go, knowing that this is the world as we know it. At least I can take pride in executing a happier walk then those poor folks took.

I had the pleasure to present ‘Tales from Trails’ to the community. I finished with a “When you walk, you rock!”.

May the Source be with you!

5 km