Thursday, June 4th, 2015

Thursday, June 4th, 2015

Mayapur, India

A New Book

From Winnipeg I boarded a plane where a brief encounter with Swami Narayana monks involved saying, "Namaste!" and "Hare Krishna."  After a lay-over in Toronto and then boarding Air Canada destined for Thunder Bay I sat next to Shawn Campbell.  We were next to each other on the flight to Thunder Bay.

What a great conversation!  Time was flying as was our plane.  So Shawn used to be employed with the pulp and paper industry.  We talked about that and I became enlightened as to what wood makes the best pulp and what makes the best newsprint.  The dominant trees of the area, nestled in the Boreal forest was spruce, jack pine, some poplar, cedar.  "What about the white birch so common around Thunder Bay?  What's happening to them?  They seem to be deteriorating.  On my walks I see them losing their leaves and lustre.

Shawn had the answer.  "When the loggers come in for the paper industry they take all the trees out around them and leave them...

I butt in and said, "Alone?!"

"Yes."  He went on to explain that like most trees they are inter-dependent.  They need the other species to survive.  Whether its gases they emit or the breaking of the wind, the birches require that the other species be around them.

"Hmmmmm!"  That's like people.  We, being social animals, hanker for human interaction, an interdependency," I suggested.  Who wants to be alone?

We covered more territory in our chat.  We touched on war.  Shawn felt that religion was the cause of major wars.  I begged to differ.  Many wars were fought over land and commodities such as gold, oil, salt, etc. although greed may have been part of the mix.

Shawn is now a Floridian and visits his northern home country.  I hope to meet him again.

It was by Boulevard Lake that Lian, her 7 year son, Noah, Milan, Luke, and host Dr Jani - circled the waters' perimeter.  There we were in the world of birches (healthy ones), poplar, pine, and spruce.  We were on Cloud Nine with the smells and colours.  I felt I was in the air once again.

May the Source be with you!

7 km