(no subject)

After watching a bit of telly (in the US the slang term is TV or the tube, but I prefer the British slang better), I took a walk to the park and sat on a bench to watch a flock of Canadian Geese meander around me. They had gotten so used to people feeding them that they barely noticed my presence. The german shepard that wandered past, on the other hand, gave them pause, and they waddled back to the lake well out of its way. Not hurrying, just getting well past him.

It was nice to out amongst the trees, grass, and blue blue sky...so blue, it felt magical somehow. A soft breeze, crisp but not cold filtering in and out of the leaves. Listening to music on my phone, via spotify, which included at one point The Beatles hymn, Let it Be...as I stared up at a canopy of orange, red, and green leaves filtered with blue sunshine. I found the tune peaceful...and comforting. A haven from the hubbub.

Once home, spoke to my mother for a bit and posted pics on FB. Other than that I'd moved away from social media. Just listening to music in Prospect Park, which is among the biggest city parks in the world. You venture inside it's boundaries and you can almost forget the city exists just beyond them.

Later much later...I checked out FB to find an event I was interested in attending tonight at my church. Although at the church, it wasn't sponsored by the church. On it, my uncle posted underneath my pics of the Canadian Geese, if I thought he was evil for shooting the geese and eating them. To wit, my mother responded, too many of anything is a pest, nuance, etc and that is why we have refugee camps and wars. My uncle is married my mother's younger sister, is conservative, lives in Ann Arbor Michigan on 11 acres, and shoots squirrels and geese in his back yard. He's a retired engineer who worked for a major automotive company in Detroit. My aunt, my father's sister, liked my mother's comment. She's a former school nurse who worked with the poor in the Pocono Mountains in rural Pennsylvania.

I may well be the only person in my family who lives in a city, everyone else lives in the burbs or in the rural country side far far away. My brother has a family of deer living in his backyard, in upstate NY, while I have a family of immigrants talking in Bengali and Russian nearby.

Anyhow...I decided, a bit on a whim, to check out a Diwali Celebration being held at my church tonight. Took the subway up, with a bunch of girls in tutus of varying colors, chaperoned by an older woman in a racoon suit. Only in NY, I thought. Before the celebration, since it started with a reception and food, I spoke with a man from the central section of India, which he told me is covered with trees and forests -- he plants trees, and is an architect focusing on urban areas. He feels that we have become a bit too urbanized, that there are too many buildings and not enough trees. He took some seeds from a spicy thing that he was eating, which he told me you do not eat and grow into huge trees. He will plant them -- he feels New York needs more trees. He was an attractive man, with long hair, beautiful milk chocolate skin, spots of gray, and a mustache. Thick accent, so hard to understand. But I'm sort of used to that -- over half of the people I work with on a daily basis have thick accents.

The Diwali Celebration wasn't what I expected. Somewhat clumsy, and filled with unknown political dignitaries self-congragulating each other on their invitations to the event. Most were assistants to more powerful folks who couldn't make it, like the Brooklyn Borough Mayor, and the Mayor of New York City. Then there were dance numbers awkwardly performed by small Indian children, and a song sung by a timid boy and his less timid father. They served fried breaded foods and mango lasse (apparently these are traditional treats for Diwali along with gift giving), so I ducked out for sushi and water.
At the end, various religious men got up to present prayers and reflections, a dancer performed (although most of the people left after the lead of the Hindu religion finished his sermon), and people got up to light candles, while a couple of folks played music on their drums.

The dances were interesting and beautiful in their way as was the songs. I wish there was more of that in religion and less speechifying. I think sometimes that people talk too much. Although, his holiness, who was dress all in white and had just arrived from India, was interesting and provided some insight into the Hindu religion. Diwali is a celebration of light coming from darkness. Like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas...it's about shedding light into the darkness or how we handled the dark. For these are the dark months, as the sun begins to sink lower and lower into the horizon and days drift ever shorter. His Holiness, whose name I cannot remember, stated that light was knowledge, and we are souls in matter, the matter is not important and temporary. It gives us pain and suffering. And how karma is about consequence. You do right, you have positive karma, you do wrong, it is negative karma. It was an interesting sermon, if a bit simplistic. I rather liked the first speaker's more...his was more humble, and merely about being kind to each other...and caring in these difficult times.

During it, my body hurt. The right side of my head seemed blocked, and I felt the dull throb of a headache coming on. Then the ache seemed to radiate down my neck, shoulder arm, leg, knee, calf. Walking home, I felt like I wanted to limp, my hip hurt and I ached. I don't know why. Sinuses?
Digestion? I may have been allergic to some of the perfumes. (shrugs).

Tired now. I may take a hot bath with euclyptus epson salts and go to bed.