Sawatdee Bee Mai!

Happy New Year!

If Thais know anything they know how to have a good time! The new year is celebrated here for almost an entire week. Parying is nearly a nightly event for many Thais so to make the new years special most everyone gets a week off work to crowd the streets with buckets of ice water and super soakers! Each morning I dreaded the thought of going out into the foray but every day as the first smiling Thai soaked me to the bone I couldn't help but to beam with joy! On the first day of Songkran Mike and I rode our bikes past a little girl who tried with all her might to fling some water on us. She failed miserably but smiled with glee just at the attempt. Mike turned his bike around and rode in slow and close. I came in behind giving her enough time to reload. Thai children are so cute! She used the weapon of choice for 90% of Thais. It was the same bole you see in most bathrooms used to "force flush " the squat toilets... At first this was a disturbing thought. Decidedly worst though was that the party centered around the moat and moat water is the dirtiest water you can find in Thailand. "If you get moat water in your mouth it's 2 weeks bad luck" joked Mike. By the end of an hour I was thoroughly saturated with the green/brown stuff, it was in my mouth, my ears, up my nose... I soon forgot my horror and joined the masses in blissful revelrie. You could get wet in a few basic ways. The only one that was not at all cool was when a farang (whitey) hit you with a since of mean fun, or after dark, this was not common though. Otherwise you either got a playfull soaking, or were honored with a pour over your head head and a blessing. The other fairly common wetting was the "your cute" splash. Mike and I were both actually grabbed and dragged behind truck full of beautiful Thais. By the sagacious advice of a good friend I will no longer speak in details on taboo subjects. I will only say that I didn't go with the truck. I have fallen in with a Thai woman I have been enamored with for almost the entire 3 months here in Chiang Mai and will spend the rest of my time here with her. Songkran! I will tell you honestly that nothing in the states can be compared with it's well placed fun (Halloween follows in the distance). It is well placed in the since that it seems to fill every need of the body and spirit. Everyone knows how I get carried away when I get excited. With out a second thought I climbed on top of a songthau (red truck) inhabited by some drunk farangs who hardly noticed my quick pirate like boarding. Pulling my camera out of its ziplock risking its safety as I snapped pictures and turned dogged just in time to avoid bucket after bucket flung by the crowed below. It is the closest I hope to ever get to feeling like a war corespondent. Turning the corner away from the bulk of the people we sped up to normal crusing speeds and for the first time in months, I was cold! THIS was well placed. As if the goddesses of Songkran knew that after months of blistering heat with no hope of relief in the near future my heart and mind, like my skin, was beginning to blister. Just kidding. It was a nice feeling though.

Since then I have been getting blind massages and fawning over my new girlfriend. The only odd thing about the relationship is money. I remember walking the markets wishing I had someone to buy beautiful things for. When I am alone I feel fine buying something for her. I am rich here! When together I am reminded of the stereotype of a beautiful Thai woman and the sketchy white man. This in no way fits our relationship, but I felt strange yesterday as I paid for our dinner. The first few dates she refused to let me pay even for myself. She is well paid for a Thai and very pleased with her income. I pressed her for numbers and details of her work eager to learn about Thai business as well as her. A little over $300 a month! Less then I make in a week at a mediocre job! At first I was infuriated! She works that much for that little! I held my tung not wanting to say anything offensive and thought about it. She lives with her whole family, and can eat for $3 a day... So it IS good as long as she does not have aspirations to leave Thailand. Unfortunately she works 70 hrs a week for it and she does want to travel. I want to understand more about economics. I want to understand why the king takes actions to keep the baht weak and how the world supports such disparity of wealth. I can tell you that she marks the upper crest of intelligence, beauty and kindness. Why is it that by her virtues she can not live in the world with the advantages that I have? It is due to my lucky fate more then my charm or mediocre intelligence that I live with ease in this world. I have worked on average less then a quarter of each year since reaching adulthood, hardly a productive member of society. This not has not stopped me from seeing fair part of the US and venturing into the wider world. By whose virtue have I been blessed? Certainly not my own. Have I heard my father say these words? I have inherited along with half his body -the better half I think- his luck, his perspective, and his confusion, well maybe half.

Enough!
You have suffered far enough, whether in love or intriege, through the ramblings that map the dizzy mess of my mind, the labarinth I wonder daily. "Relax, breath, think happy thoughts". This is all I know of wisdom. I am a lucky fool, a cog in the wheel, a wave in the ocean of samsara. I am sure I have 2 friends, likewise lucky and lost, in Omar Khayyam and his most famous translator Edward Fitzgerald.


XXVI.
Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

XXVII.
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door as in I went.

XXVIII.
With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

XXIX.
Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

XXX.
What, without asking, hither hurried whence?
And, without asking, whither hurried hence!
Another and another Cup to drown
The Memory of this Impertinence!

XXXII.
There was a Door to which I found no Key:
There was a Veil past which I could not see:
Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE
There seemed--and then no more of THEE and ME.

XXXIII.
Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Asking, "What Lamp had Destiny to guide
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?"
And--"A blind understanding!" Heav'n replied.

XLVIX.
'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

L.
The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes;
And He that toss'd Thee down into the Field,
He knows about it all--HE knows--HE knows!