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March 16, 2000
I'm getting ready to leave London tomorrow for Devon, a 4 ¼ hour bus ride to the southwest
of England. I'm told it's gorgeous there. I'll be staying with a family with whom I'll be exchanging four hours
of work per day, mostly gardening, for room and board. They're Buddhists who are active in the same group that
my current host is. I'm ready to move on. It's been great here in London, but two weeks here is enough for now
and there's so much more of the Isles to see.
Since my last report, I've been doing more exploring, especially of free stuff, for instance: the National Gallery;
the National Portrait Gallery; The British Museum (my favorites being its 4400 year old mummies and the Oriental
section filled with statues, art and lots of religious artifacts), and the British Library. The latter has a remarkable
collection of letters, manuscripts, recordings, etc. My favorites were, first of all, the original Diamond Sutra,
which is not only a classic teaching of the Buddha, but the world's earliest dated, printed book. I also saw the
hand written letter that Gandhi wrote the British in 1943 telling them he'd rather stay in jail and fast than get
out and take them off the hook for all the shit going down (that may not be his exact wording) in the independence
struggle - remember that part in the movie? There were also original manuscripts of scores written by Mozart, Beethoven,
Bach, and the Beatles.
I've also gotten around to the pubs. Now there's an interesting British cultural phenomenon. That's where the somewhat
reserved Brits loosen up... and boy do they. Imagine something as simple as alcohol doing that! And yes, the Guinness
does taste even better here... especially when they buy, which they were eager to do wherever I went.
Getting back to my comments last time on "the high level of acceptance and tolerance here in England",
perhaps I was a bit over zealous in my praise. My friend Steven B. reminded me that maybe all the brown people
being colonized for about 600 years might not have been so impressed. Touché, Steve! Also, another experience
I had last Sunday impacted me. I went to a "Free Tibet" march. It was organized to dramatize the plight
the Tibetans have been in for forty years, since the Chinese invaded their country, brutalized them and destroyed
their environment and culture. Because of the time I've spent in the East, I'm particularly sensitive to their
situation and I chose to participate.
It started at the Chinese Embassy and ended up several miles later at the British Office of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately,
the British government is just like the American government - more interested in Chinese trade dollars than human
rights! The march attracted about 300-400 participants and featured a talk by two Tibetan monks who'd just recently
escaped to India and then had come to London. It was very compelling. But another powerful aspect affected me:
memories of marches I took part in back in the late 60's and early 70's, mostly against the Vietnam War. As I walked
and chanted, it felt like I was back in Washington DC. - back in the midst of all that passion and fury and excitement.
But this time there were no throwing rocks through the windows of the Justice Dept., and no tear gas in retaliation.
But it all was so remarkably vivid, and very emotional for me.
From our quiz last time:
- 1- Dosh is $$$$$.
2- Loo is a toilet.
3- WC [water closet] is the same.
4- stone = 14 lbs.
5 - Getting pissed in the U.K. is getting drunk, not angry.
But I now ask you, where is the second floor of a building really the third floor? Yes, here. When I went into
Waterstones (a very large book store) I was directed from the ground floor up to the second floor, and when I did
go up to next level I found I was on the first floor. Go figure! There are five floors: basement, ground, first,
second and third. Hey… this was all new to me!
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Peace
and love
