Friday, April 27, 2007

"Why are you going all the way over there?"

A typical conversation with the women at the office...

"So where you going again, China?"
"Close. Thailand."
"Now why would you wanna go there? Is that just cause you couldn't find a teaching job here that you gotta go all the way over there? I knew the economy was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad."
"Nah. That's not why I'm going over there. I'm going there because this is the opportunity of a lifetime."
"Is that what you wanna be in life, a teacher? I mean is that what you went to college for?"
"No."
"Well you be careful, watch out for all those drugs and men dressed as women. They got a lot of that stuff over there."

And then they proceed to ask me about my brother who worked here for a few months before fleeing to a zen center completely isolated from the world, neatly nestled in the mountains 16 miles outside of Carmel Valley, CA. It's called Tassajara and can only be reached by a dirt road that is rendered impassable every so often when heavy rains wash it out. You can't call Tassajara either, but rather an operator service in Carmel Valley (remember, 16 miles away) takes down a message and then someone from the zen center has to come and pick it up. The irony is that the inhabitors of Tassajara can make outgoing calls via a satellite phone with a one second delay, but that can prove to be quite annoying if delayed laughter and soporific pacing aren't exactly your style. I'm exaggerating, it's not really that bad. And for your information, my brother is doing quite well, thank you very much...you don't have to ask every single day. Nothing really new happens when you're living in a zen center. It's kind of like living in a retirement home, the only thing that changes is the winning numbers for bingo. Lane's big news for the month is that he now gets to be a bread baker in addition to a dishwasher extraordinaire. He sure is moving up in the world. :)

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