One of
the things that has caused me stress in recent years is that the legendary
patience wore thin. I would point out
that to a large extent it has been restored.
It was one of those 'phases' of the menosoupal process which got worse
at one point. It is a constant bane to
find that there are symptoms which arrive, create havoc for anything from weeks
to years, then recede - only to be replaced with another bag of balefulness.
That it
in itself constitutes menoloopality.
Anyway,
the patience did restore to a large extent thus preventing any actual murders
from taking place. But what has been
retained is a disdain for the plainly stupid and patently ignorant as well as
an eye and ear for the absurd. I am
dedicating Tuesdays to exploring some examples.
First cab
off the rank is a Yankee visitor of Indian heritage staying as a guest at the
wedding recently held on the ashram. To
put this in context you need to know that all Brahmacharinis are required to
wear sari and the Brahmacharis must wear lunghi (dhoti) and we are all in white
only. I of course stand out from the
crowd.
"Oh,
Hari Om amma," - pregnant pause - "you're white too!"
Having
had 'do not answer back' pretty much hard-wired into my system all I could do
was smile and indicate I was in mouna (silent mode). Anyway, I was beyond words. Whether to laugh or cry was my dilemma and I
am sure neither of them would have been good for public relations.
On
reflection, taking into account Indian idiomatic English, the fellow likely was
commenting that he was happy to see a Western amma committing to renunciation
and wearing only white. As afterthought
I will give him that leniency. At the
time though, I was a bit menoloopal.
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