Leaving 6 a.m.
It's about 4:45 a.m. Saturday. I am consuming black coffee trying to wake up. Everything's packed but this laptop.
Checking the weather, it looks like there may be thunderstorms Monday afternoon. That's when the Tibetan festival is set for downtown Atlanta. We sure need the rain, but ....
I'll miss Greg and the animals while I'm gone. Now that the day's here, I feel hesitant. It's rare that anyone gets to meet a hero, and His Holiness is a hero of mine. Yet I also know we're all people, just the same. We all have quirks and failings. Sometimes I wonder if it's not better just to keep some people away from reality.
Yet others do quite well as real people -- Vaclav Havel, the playwright and former president of Czech Republic -- comes to mind. I once stood beside him as he smoked a cigarette. There he was, flesh and blood, but still he emanated something very noble.
