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dharma in d.c. |
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I was sitting in the control room of Moy World Domination, Inc. and reading a recent issue of the International Campaign for Tibet's member newsletter. If memory serves, the top story discussed their efforts in regard to the Chinese government's pollution and resource exploitation in Tibet. At the bottom of the page, there was a brief story that announced a celebration of Tibetan culture that was to take place over two weekends on the National Mall in Washington D.C. In addition -- the eyepopper, really -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama was scheduled to make an address during the second weekend, on 2 July. This was an amazing and unexpected opportunity. The only U.S. appearance of His Holiness that I had known of was to be in Los Angeles on 20 June. I had half a notion to go, but it seemed impractical -- travel time, expense, missing work. Plus, my one West Coast connection was about to leave for Phoenix. Now His Holiness was going to be within eight hours' driving distance on a weekend. I was quite excited by all this and made frequent mention of the event to friends and family in the weeks that followed. As the end of June approached, though, it was like I had put the idea out of my head. I had begun to doubt my motivation. I thought that I had built it up too much or been too expectant. In a way, I had begun to think that I didn't deserve to go. Fortunately, in the last week of June, two or three different people asked me if I had gone/was still going to see the Dalai Lama. My interest and excitement began to return after those queries... but I still didn't commit. On 29 June, I was saying "I don't know if I'll go." On 30 June, I didn't "see any reason why I can't go" and made a note to myself to confirm event times. Around midnight, I pulled up the Tibetan Cultural Conservancy's page. This was a good thing, because I found out that His Holiness was going to preside over the Monlam Chenmo, the Great Prayer Festival for World Peace, at 8:30 a.m. His public address would follow at 11 a.m. I knew I was going to have to leave Saturday afternoon in order to get to the capital at a decent hour, get rest and then get to the Mall. Of course, there were no guarantees (least of all with the vehicle I would have to drive). I made a mental plan for the day, relaxed myself, prayed, and went to bed. |