The World

“The fool laughs at generosity.
The miser cannot enter heaven.
But the master finds joy in giving
And happiness is his reward.”
                                                Dhammapada

 

In the village where I am living (ok, I’m visiting, but I’m alive and it feels like I’m living), the local residents are very musically inclined.  They love music and I love the voyeuristic thrill of listening to their freedom.  During the day, the teenagers take turns playing guitar for each other (school’s out for summer – they don’t know the song).  In the late afternoon, the children sing songs as they splash in the river.  In the evening, I sometimes sit with a group and pass around the iPod until we’ve squeezed every bit of charge from the battery.  At night, I loan my friend, Kao, the iPod so he can listen to it while going to sleep.

I am lightly ridiculed for loaning Kao my iPod. ‘Maybe stolen… lost… broken… never see him again…’  All sorts of circumstances threaten my iPod will cease to be my iPod.  Yes, any of these ‘might happens’, might just happen.  Or… a jet may crash into this tiny village and destroy all that is here and my iPod itself, will cease to be.

I’ll take my chances.  I’ll take my chances because, as I wait for the impending 747 to land on my head, it makes me feel good to trust someone, to share music, to detach myself from prizing my possession too much.  It adds to my happiness.  It helps me sleep peacefully through the night while the cockerels crow long before the day dawns.