Musical Wanderer

During the holiday season, outdoor markets sprout up, with stands selling assorted gifts.  Many markets feature a stand of Tibetan goods, featuring miniature buddhas and bohdisatvas, prayer wheels, ringing bowls, and prayer flags.  You can see prayer flags in front yards in some educated neighborhoods, providing lively splashes of color as well as evidence of a multicultural spirit, at least in terms of shopping. My first experience of prayer flags was during a two month trip to India a number of years ago.   My friend Julia and I spent a weekend in Dharamsala, an overnight bus trip from New Delhi (Note:  An overnight bus trip in India is something you must experience).  The town has a very large expatriate Tibetan community as the home of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama.  All over the town are long strands of prayer flags stretching from buildings, trees, and telephone poles, a pleasant contrast to the dinginess of many small Indian towns. The strands have fl

When my wife and I bought our house from our landlord, part of the agreement was everything he left in the house "conveyed."  Usually when you buy a house that just means appliances, but he still had some bookshelves plus a lot of assorted items in the basement--old housewares, some hardware, tools, mirrors, lamps, even a tiny guitar speaker and a fedora.  We didn't want most of it, plus we had some stuff each of us brought into the house when we moved in that we didn't need anymore.  Robin said we should call someone to come pick up the junk.  I thought we could just put it out on the curb and people would take stuff.  She didn't believe me, but went along with me.  We put out the stuff on Friday afternoon.  I sat out on the stoop with a beer to watch. Within 10 minutes the first people took some stuff.  By dinner time Sunday, everything was gone. My neighborhood is a model for recycling.  Some of it is silly, like people putting lamps out that don't work w