Monday, March 17, 2008

The Bestial and the Beautiful


The last few days have been a mix of awarenesses. I'm following the events in Tibet and am happy that finally some of the news media are covering the protests as Tibetans ask to be recognized as legitimate citizens of their own country. I am horrifid, but not surprised that the Chinese military police are using murderous force. The Dalai Lama has been quoted using the term observers have been using for years, "cultural genocide" which has been a policy for 50 years by the Chinese in Tibet. For further coverage go to the Tricycle link in my previous blog,they are covering it as well as anyone, they are a Buddhist publication in America.

I've just returned from Cori's wedding. So many photos were being taken by a very good photographer that I did not even take out my camera except a couple of times. The picture here was from a distance and of course, as always light is a problem. But this is just after they were pronounced "man and wife" and the look on Cori's face was so radiant I thought she was going to levitate.
Altogether it was an amazing weekend - in several senses. It was sort of surreal to stay at an opulently decorated B-and-B called Fernbrook Inn, in Centerville which I would recommend. It's an historic estate with grounds planned by Frederick Law Olmstead, it's still a work in progress with more rooms becoming available each season. In the midst of family, of last minute details, of a birthday party for the bride's father ... a segment of my mind was on Tibet. At the same time I was watching two young people's extremely happy moments. So many contradictions in life, the immediate is the most real apparently, yet I have been in Lhasa and seen the omnipresence of police so that is more real to me than, say, problems in Kosovo or Iraq. What a painful and sometimes wonderful world.

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