Belly of the Whale

This was my favorite line from the responses I recieved from that last story I sent out:
"It [sailing] makes polo sound like a game for sissies."
That is wonderful!!! Indeed, but horses are way faster, and are more likely to run into one another--but polo is rarely played in 50 knot wind with 15ft seas. A horse won't abide!


I have been thinking about an email I recieved long ago, back when I was in Nepal. I never responded. I simply couldn't muster the focus to write what would need to be written. Something, I dunno.
I think I am ready to respond now. I wrote all las night, but it was a bunch of rubbish. I need to find a more concise direction. "Mystery" I think that is it.


The email went as follows. My response I'll publish when finished.

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Jonah,
Thanks for the reminder of our place in this world. It has been 4.5 years since I was in Nepal, and I've already become caloused about what we have here.
I'm sitting in an airconditioned house, in a soft office chair, typing on a bad-ass Mac, sipping cappacino from a real espresso machine, and pondering driving my car downtown to watch a friend entertain a crowd with her acoustic guitar. I
n short, nothing I'm doing today involves survival--I know that today I will not starve, I will not thirst (to death), I will not overheat (barring some unforeseen circumstance), I will not get a bacterial infection from the tap water, and my padded bank account will not fall to 0.
I thank God for this, and I thank you for reminding me, if only for a few hours, that I must be thankful for this.

So, let's talk about deeper issues than what ails society. Where do you see God in all of this? Do you believe that He is not responsible for the cleft between American and Nepalese society? If He is responsible, does that make him an injust bastard for letting us have what we have versus what the Nepalese suffer with?
And yet, despite the material possessions (this I believe is God's heart--) there is an underlying human condition. A condition in which people are unhappy, depsite what they are given. A state of destitution within, in the spirit/soul/inner being, that will make someone in American contemplate suicide even though they make a 6 figure salary.
And yet, the Nepalese are surprisingly happy, depsite their poverty. Even so, they are not neccessarily satisfied, because they know what they've heard about America.
I can't tell you how many times when I told folks in Nepal that I was from America, they responded, "ahh, very good country" with a smile on their face.
One family in Deurali (on the way to trek to Makalu) offered me tea and talked to me for a good hour, trying to convince me to set up a visa for them to come live in the US. And do you know what I was thinking when they would tell me this: "yeah, it's alright". Am I a hypocrite or what? Yeah, it's alright. Living in the US allows me to visit Nepal. The opposite is almost never the case.
They would die to live here, and I often couldn't care less. So, what's my point? My point is that Americans are not satisfied with their material possessions, and Nepalese aren't satisfied with their poverty.
My point is that there is nothing in this world that can be sensed that can give life-sustaining satisfaction. Have you even shown up at a place, say a mountain cabin in Montana with a gorgeous backdrop and thought to yourself, I've arrived...just let me stay here forever... And within 24 hours, you're tired of being in the cabin, you gotta get out and explore. What is that? That is the dissatisfaction with material things.
Many things will satsify for a brief time (sex, drugs, money, power, food, even a small cabin in the woods), and yet none of them are long-term sustenance. That is where I believe that a relationship with the Lord God, as revealed through Jesus Christ, comes in.

What is your feeling about the ways of the monks that you've been around? Is there an assurance about the path that they're on? Have you noticed that there are demons in
Buddhism, as there are in Christianity?
But, how do they rid themselves of demons, versus how do Christians rid themselves of demons? Which is more effective? How does the buddhist community compare to the christian communities that you've witnessed? You know what I believe about all of this--so, I won't respond.
However, you should ponder these type questions while you're there. Many people come to Nepal looking looking... They believe that there will be satisfaction in the ancient ways, the many gods, or the god within. And I know that at least some of them leave with a greater respect for the culture without any real inner peace.
And, I know from your email and from my visit, that there is much in the culture to despise (the garbage on the streets, the beggars, the pollution, and even more myopic view of life that our own American one), so perhaps those who come away respecting the lot are deceiving themselves.
So where's the balance? Where's the truth? What's the Truth? In the ancient ways? In the mishmash of kathmandu culture? In the bloated, sleepy ego of the United States? In the humililty and death (and I believe subsequent resurrection) of Jesus of Nazareth?
"Many people come to my country, looking looking..." (A quote from a Nepalese man in a Galen Rowell book). I love you Jonah. It's odd that I feel a bond to you since we've spent so little time together, and yet I feel a deeper kinship with you.
I hope that you'll ponder my questions, and moreover, my questioning attitude. Jesus said, "Ask and you shall receive, Seek and you will find, Knock and the door will be opened unto you..." Who is the actor/instigator of action in the last part of this passage written in passive voice?... How does this relate to what you see in the culture of Nepal?
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

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That is what it is all about right there. Now, he's a writer, and a thinker. Beautiuful. Thank you.
You see how that is something that can stick with you over the years.