OCTOBER 26 2021

New Year 2021

#MondayMemories, MemorableMoments

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NEW YEAR 2021 - a difficult year coming to an end a new one arriving full of uncertainties. To celebrate pr not to celebrate? As I prepared for the New Year's Eve Party, I felt that I was Floating in Time. Upon arriving, I found myself seated next to a stranger who regaled me with stories of becoming a bodyguard by learning the Essence of Shaolin Zen. On the way home, in a good mood, my driver explained how to say Happy New Year, the Thai Way, and why it is important to always bring in the New Year with a smile.

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FLOATING IN TIME

 

Now never came,

back then in my youth,

when I thought life had not yet begun.

 

Then I suffered and planned

for what I would do, when

the now of my future showed up.

 

When that moment came,

I discovered that now

had always been near, even then.

 

Now COVID has come,

what was then is gone,

and the when that’s ahead is unknown.

 

So let’s leave then behind,

put when out of mind,

and toast the new normal now.

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ESSENCE OF SHAOLIN ZEN

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As we raised the first glass

to greet the New Year,

the stranger began to speak.

 

Tall, bulky, and fit,

dressed all in black,

he dropped me a classic line.

 

"You're drinking white wine

---here’s a menu," he said.

"I’Il buy you your food instead."

 

No question, no doubt,

a peremptory tone---

I looked up. "I accept," I said.

 

"Thought you would," he replied,

quite satisfied,

as he opened another beer.

 

Introductions came next.

"I’m retired," I said.

"Worked in Rome for 30-odd years."

 

I told him my job---

to assure ample food

for all people to eat at all times.

 

"Is that so," he said.

"I work in security too.

As a young Irish lad

 

"I was fat and unfit,

went to China and learned

how to speak fluent Mandarin.

 

"Trained in Shaolin Zen

and mastered the art

of fighting with pure intent.

 

"I’m a bodyguard now,

an interesting life,

guarding the celebs and rich."

 

I made a brief comment

about martial arts

as he peered in my mesmerized eyes.

 

"So tell me," he asked,

what’s the core that is taught

by the masters of Zen in Shaolin?"

 

"One-pointed awareness,"

I started to say,

but he stopped me. "You’re wrong," he said.

 

"Empty mind is the answer.

When you know empty mind.

it’s then that you’ve understood Zen."

 

Entranced, I watched

as his body stilled

and he entered the heart of Shaolin.

 

This Irishman, drunk

and full of himself,

had just shown me how he’d been trained.

 

Then his wife leaned over,

they spoke in Chinese;

soon after he whipped out his phone.

 

"Look here," he said.

I looked and I saw

my own face--- a selfie with him.

 

'How teen.' I thought.

But I put on a smile,

crinkled my eyes, and posed.

 

He positioned himself,

motioned me in,

adjusted the screen to prepare.

 

In that moment he grasped

what he’d not seen before.

"You’re really quite old," he said

 

He snapped a quick shot,

said a few more words,

stood up and drifted away.

 

The encounter now done,

it was time to move on,

engage in another chat.

 

But first a last laugh

with his smiling wife,

daughter of mafia men.

 

I smiled back at her.

"He’s always like this?"---

knowing the answer was yes.

 

A mafia man

who had studied Zen,

hard to believe but true.

 

He had merged two worlds

to fulfill his role:

Zen mafia man in Chiang Mai.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR, THE THAI WAY

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To speak about now

in the abstract sense

is not the Thai way at all.

 

The Thai that I know

do not dwell on back then.

They buy lottery tickets and dream

 

that their luck will begin

in the coming New Year,

when they’ll draw a good number and win.

 

'It’s karma,' they say,

but they also pray

that the Buddha will intervene.

 

And when New Year comes,

then everyone smiles

and banishes negative thoughts,

 

to ensure that the year

now about to arrive

will be filled with good fortune and blessed.

 

"Happy New Year," I hear

my Thai driver say,

"Happy New Year," the smiling Thai way.

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