From Brahma to Buddha, Fall 2008

Namaste everyone, it's 10:16 AM in India, which means it's 12:47 AM in the US and 4:47 AM in Morocco. We leave for Ladakh tomorrow. Delhi has been intense (that is an understatement to say the least). I'm having a fantastic time, but it hasn't just been shits and giggles. Yesterday brought a lot of uncomfortable realities and feelings to bare. I came to India thinking I could stomach the injustice I would see, I thought my emotional walls could withstand it but, pardon the analogy, they came crashing down faster than the US stock market. I had a feeling that I would be the first person to cry in India...I was right. As everyone on the trip knows, I'm awful at hiding my emotions. A few one on one discussions as well as council last night brought those emotions full circle. I'm still having difficulties dealing with the poverty, as my family knows well, I'm somebody who tends to feel things with every fiber of my being, not to say that I am somehow more morally righteous than anyone else, just more likely to let it affect me. By the way Dad, what you said, about the first days being the hardest has proven invaluable, without your words of comfort I would be in some very deep emotional shit. But, thanks to you, and the kind words of Justin and Tracy, Kate, Natalie, Sam, Jake, Wade, Tim, Sandy, Ari, and Marisa I have a hovercraft of love with which to pilot across this waterway of intense emotion. Not to say I don't feel it now, by Odin's beard do I feel it, I'm just not being engulfed by it. On a happier note, this may be the most amazing group of human beings I've ever encountered in my sheltered 18 years of existence. And now for Kurt Vonnegut allusion number #17 of the trip. In Cat's Cradle the religion of Bokononism talks of special groups of people called a Karass, which Wikipedia defines as: a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will. The people can be thought of as fingers in a Cat's Cradle. I don't know if we're that magical, but it feels as though our whole lives are inextricably linked, I like to think of us as the Megazord from Power Rangers, each of us being an individual zord, all of us being indespensible if we are to form the Megazord and survive this physical, emotional, and spiritual crucible. I think that's it for now, I still have so much kicking around in my head but I'll save it for another time.

We'll meet again, don't know where don't know when.
-Doug B.

P.S. Mom, Dad, Bek, and Jessie, being 12,000 kilometers away has really helped me to realize just how much I love each of you, even if you can be really annoying.

P.P.S. Apparently, I'm the funny kid on the trip, who knew!