Spring break 2010 was a good time that I brought my daughter home to Pak Badol in Kelantan. It was our first overseas trip together as daughter and dad. Both she and I had our spring breaks on the same week and we might as well spend it together visiting her Tok Mek, aunts and uncle and other paternal family members. Jasmine has not met her young cousins nor has she met her aunt's husband. This was an opportune time. Tracey could not come with us because of her work and she stayed home.
Along the way, we stopped in Bangkok, Thailand. It was cheaper to get airtickets through Bangkok from Little Rock and then take AirAsia flights to Kuala Lumpur and on to Kota Bharu. In the end, the cost of airtickets would be the same as though we fly from Little Rock to Kuala Lumpur directly except in our case, we had the chance to visit Bangkok.
We travelled to a river market and rode an elephant. Along the way we passed an area where they farm salt. Yes, they drained sea water from the ocean and let it stay and dried itself out on the land. We could see farmers harvesting the salts. They raked it and made piles of little mountains of salts similar to the way I did on weekends during autumn days when I cleaned the yard of pines needle leaves.
For some unexplained reasons, Thailand grew on me. I love Thai food and its people. I especially cherish the experience when I visited any marketplace or walking along the sidewalks window shopping. What interest me more is the spirituality of Thai people, their brand of Buddhism. They managed to find themselves balancing the demand of modernity and traditional spiritual life without resorting to extremism and violence. This is not denying that violence happens everywhere on the surface of this earth including Thailand. But thus far in my many short trips to Thailand, I am more and more intrigued by the peacefulness that I felt. I am more myself whenever I was there and I was beginning to experience what personal liberty truly means. I was hoping to pass on the experience that I felt during my many short trip to Thailand on to my daughter who is my 'princess'. Being there, breathing the air, smelling the odors of food and fruits from sidewalk stalls/vendors and rubbing shoulders in a crowded market place is an experience far from the still air of pine trees surrounding our home in the timberland area of Arkansas.
The one thing that bothered more than anything else is the experience I have during my interactions with others when they begin to proclaim in the context of a casual conversation that they are so and so such as "I am a ____". Instantly upon such revelation, I found myself stuck in how to process the pronouncement and equally puzzled as to its purposefulness in the context of a casual conversation and making acquaintance with literally a stranger. I do not know how to proceed, how to go on with such pronouncement and proclamation. But for one thing, it was a boundary setting in a rapport building efforts that I interpret to mean "because I am such and such, these are my limits or because of that I am somewhat different or worse, superior than you especially in the context of religiosity and morality". I experienced this more when interacting with others in the South of the USA and in Malaysia but amazingly and refreshingly, not in Thailand! I often questioned the needs for such statement or labeling or defining oneself in a casual interaction. To me such transaction is of little value if not a complete turn off. So in return and consequently, I am turned judgmental in reverse and I despised the fact that I got myself caught in that circular homeostatic dynamic. I think the world would be a better place if we do not wear our religion on our sleeves because religion is personal and it is between me and my maker and no one else. Or perhaps I am overly sensitive when it comes to existential issues and overly defensive when confronted with the ambiguity and subjectivity of relating to others over issues such as in your face imposition of a lame missionary type wanna be.
For some unexplained reasons, Thailand grew on me. I love Thai food and its people. I especially cherish the experience when I visited any marketplace or walking along the sidewalks window shopping. What interest me more is the spirituality of Thai people, their brand of Buddhism. They managed to find themselves balancing the demand of modernity and traditional spiritual life without resorting to extremism and violence. This is not denying that violence happens everywhere on the surface of this earth including Thailand. But thus far in my many short trips to Thailand, I am more and more intrigued by the peacefulness that I felt. I am more myself whenever I was there and I was beginning to experience what personal liberty truly means. I was hoping to pass on the experience that I felt during my many short trip to Thailand on to my daughter who is my 'princess'. Being there, breathing the air, smelling the odors of food and fruits from sidewalk stalls/vendors and rubbing shoulders in a crowded market place is an experience far from the still air of pine trees surrounding our home in the timberland area of Arkansas.
The one thing that bothered more than anything else is the experience I have during my interactions with others when they begin to proclaim in the context of a casual conversation that they are so and so such as "I am a ____". Instantly upon such revelation, I found myself stuck in how to process the pronouncement and equally puzzled as to its purposefulness in the context of a casual conversation and making acquaintance with literally a stranger. I do not know how to proceed, how to go on with such pronouncement and proclamation. But for one thing, it was a boundary setting in a rapport building efforts that I interpret to mean "because I am such and such, these are my limits or because of that I am somewhat different or worse, superior than you especially in the context of religiosity and morality". I experienced this more when interacting with others in the South of the USA and in Malaysia but amazingly and refreshingly, not in Thailand! I often questioned the needs for such statement or labeling or defining oneself in a casual interaction. To me such transaction is of little value if not a complete turn off. So in return and consequently, I am turned judgmental in reverse and I despised the fact that I got myself caught in that circular homeostatic dynamic. I think the world would be a better place if we do not wear our religion on our sleeves because religion is personal and it is between me and my maker and no one else. Or perhaps I am overly sensitive when it comes to existential issues and overly defensive when confronted with the ambiguity and subjectivity of relating to others over issues such as in your face imposition of a lame missionary type wanna be.
