Amigos de mi corazon, Hope you are all doing well. It has been more than six weeks since I last shared my observations, ideas, and just plain random thoughts with you all. It is great to sit down and write again. Various things have happened since then so please bear with me if some of what follows feels a little past the expiry date. I have been having trouble finding time to write, not due to lack of time though that is part of it, but rather because of a lack of discipline and steadiness of will. I had let my mind be blown about in all directions by the buffeting winds of life. Hope you enjoy this edition of the serious and the silly. Please do write and let me know how things are going with you. Also don't hesitate to tell me if you wish not to receive this in the future. love, Sankar Random thoughts (42) 2/2/05 1. The disasters of 9/11 and the tsunami both happened on picture perfect days. I can still remember walking out of my building on that day when Washington, D.C was converted to a military camp, with soldiers and armored vehicles marching through Georgetown. If not for that surreal sight, it was just a very pleasant autumn day. The sky was blue and wispy clouds floated calmly. So it was on the beaches of Thailand when the ocean washed ashore. At times like this it is worth remembering that as far as nature is concerned, everything is part of life. Living in Washington one is constantly reminded of the changeability of nature. One day it is warm and spring-like, while the next day you are walking through snow and ice, wrapping your hat and jacket around you as tight as possible. Yet the geese are lolling in the lake idly as if nothing were the matter. Every day, every moment, life is changing and moving on. Beloved friends and family pass away and become memories, mansions are built and then crumble to ruins, whole cities are washed away, love is lost and found and then lost again. In this immense universe, we are just little ants bustling around our little mounds of mud, our life and environs vulnerable to being quashed to nothing at any moment. Yet we like to live as if it will all last forever, sometimes knowingly, but most of the time without realizing. That too is part of the beauty of life. When the mind is clear I try to remind myself that this moment is all there is, and enjoy it as much as I could. Like this evening when I walked home from work, admiring the broken sheets of ice on the reservoir and the birds congregating on them. Or later when I was at the Buddhist vihara meditating in the presence of a smiling monk. Such moments make all of life worth living. 2. The most positive thing that I carry from the election in November is all that time spent interacting with volunteers and talking to voters. It will be great if we can continue that now, and try to build understanding one person at a time. Much has been said about the divisions in this country. Perhaps such an effort right now, involving democratic volunteers going out and talking to people in conservative regions, would help build bridges. Also it will be good if someone did some research on what connects everyone, and the common ground that conservatives and liberals can find. There isn't much talk about this in the media, understandable because partisan verbal combat attracts people's attention better. 3. Much of what happened in the elections is a reflection of changes in American society. I experienced it first-hand while living in the exurbs (now suburbs) of Silver Spring. Among a certain section of the middle class there is great aggressiveness, competitiveness, combined with much insecurity and selfishness. This makes for a rather dangerous combination, creating a society insensitive and ignorant at the same time. I don't see it among the people who don't have or don't want too much money, or among those who have a lot of it either. Those who live in very rural areas are more grounded as well. 4. Politicians of all persuasions have always manipulated people's fears. Whether it be insecurity about the economy or terrorism. Our fears, greed, jealousy and hatred are the keys which politicians and corporate tycoons use to exert power. Al Qaeda is just the latest in a long line of bugaboos, starting with fear of racial miscegenation, xenophobia, and until recently, communism. On the economic side politicians have exploited fears about social security, unemployment and foreign trade. 5. There is an amazing and disconcerting tendency among people to want to shut the door on others once they get in. Among immigrants who are well settled, some actually favor restriction on further immigration. Among the middle class, those who have struggled to reach a secure socio-economic status tend to forget those who are still in the margins. A lot of it is simply because people are really insecure, trying hard to protect what they have achieved with great effort. 6. I wonder if much of violence that is happening now (on the part of both Muslim and Christian fundamentalists) can be attributed to sexual deprivation or repressed sexuality. People, especially men, have a tendency to expend all of that energy in other channels, some of them destructive, unfortunately. 7. The average American takes pride in making light of the most serious issues of life at the same time as being very serious about the most trivial matters. The same people who would laugh if you talked about the meaning of life would spend hours discussing the minutiae of a baseball game that happened thirty years ago. This is not meant as criticism, though. 8. The ads from the beer companies remind me of the ads from the Bush campaign. They both presented their product as acceptable by making you feel that they understand your issues and that they are on your side. Fresh, smooth, and real. Is that not what everyone wants to be? 9. I used to think lightly of lounge-restaurants, with their living room look and feel. But the other day I was at Tryst, and it felt good to have an extension of your living room. I took my newly acquired apple ibook laptop (yeay!) and continued what I was working on while drinking tea and listening to music. But sometimes, though, it is better to be alone in the comfort of your living room than feel alone in a crowded restaurant. 10. Of all the innovations that have made our life better, I would definitely rank shoes at the top. The shoes of today make life so much more comfortable. Whether it is slogging through snow, hiking in the mountains or running on city streets, I can't imagine what it would be like without the proper shoes. 11. The defining characteristic of complete idiots is that they think everyone else is stupid. 12. To end on a funny note (from Newsweek): The web-site queryletters.blogspot.com lists actual screenplays that didn't quite make it in Hollywood. Here is one of the funnier rejectees: When a deer crashes a wedding, a NY advertising executive must go into the Connecticut woods and retrieve her wedding ring (which is stuck on its antler).