There are days when you have to reconnect with friends you’d lost touch with and have a glass of wine. Or two. This happened with me recently and it was an experience. For starters, allow me to just state that I attract ALL manner of folk. My beloved and my best can verify this.
You might be a mentally ill dude who sees cake topper candy as real food. You might be an aging man who’s spent his entire life stifling your sexuality, only to come out too late to really get anywhere this time around and then spend your days secretly seeking penis while outwardly claiming that you seek genuine connections, apparently not realizing you’re shooting yourself in your own foot. You might be a tall, lanky middle aged gentleman translator with hair I’m a little jealous of who offers decent wine when I’m over. You might be my math professor and his wife. You might be another, rare, white Hindu who just happens to get around on some wheels instead of some feet. I could probably go on and on about the randomness of the variety of people in my life and who I call friends. But I’m not really in the mood for that, and besides spades often take exception to being called a spade, even when there’s no harmful intent.
Anyway, Wednesday of this week was a doozey for me. I’d been battling a head cold, but managed to be feeling exceptionally better that day. (This would prove to be a VERY temporary reprieve, as I awoke Thursday sicker than I’d been the prior three days combined.) A friend of mine, who I briefly mentioned at the beginning of this post, taught me about me without even knowing.
I think we met off of the Internet. Craigslist, I think. I’m sure I’d posted some crazy “Hey who wants a friend” kind of ad (no wonder my small group of associates is so random!), and this kind soul responded. He’s brilliant in his own way. And, although I’m fond of climbing trees in bare feet, having amazing and life-threatening river adventures, and dancing ridiculously and often scantily clad before my menagerie of pets, this guy seems freer than I. I can’t quite place it, but I really think he is.
I’ll spare the details of our conversations, but through speaking with him recently, I was reminded of two things that are absolutely important. The first is that you MUST live your own dharma as fully as you are able. Very few other people are qualified to tell you what your dharma might entail. You must do the leg work to discern your dharma, your truest path in life, and then do more leg work to actualize it daily. The second thing is this: No swadharma (individual’s dharma, truest path) is better than anyone else’s. How my karmas play out should be irrelevant to you and vice versa.
These two unexpected reminders were welcome, I’ll say.
After hanging out with this gentleman, I rushed home as quickly as possible to get my Skype on with an out-of-state non-Indian Hindu who interviewed me for a documentary he’s putting together. He’d given me some good questions beforehand to prepare with and it was nice to speak with him live, although not without headache! (My first time using Skype in Windows 8, and it about sent me into orbit.) I’ve seen another video or two that he’s made and he seems to do well with the tools he uses. I’m hopeful that the fruits of his labors will produce something of quality that can be shared on Youtube and other outlets for folks to view.
Om Shanti
Sthapati Samanvayam 