So remember that picture of the Dalai Lama that I found in that Rudy Rucker book from a few posts back? Well, I found out where the photo was taken! Sort of. Yesterday was my first real free day since coming to Atlanta, and they claim to have the largest aquarium in the world here so I decided that I'd go check it out. I love aquariums. I've been using that picture of the Dalai Lama as a bookmark, naturally enough, and I brought my latest Rudy Rucker book with me to read when I stopped for coffee or some such after I got tired of looking at big fish tanks.
Incidentally, I was talking to one of the guys in the class earlier, asking him about stuff to do in Atlanta, and he got real excited telling me all about the Coca-Cola museum. Yeah, that's right. He was nearly frothing as he told me that they let you try every coke flavor ever made, and that they had this display of coke cans from around the world! The Korean one was particularly sublime, apparently. The highest artistic commercial expression of design and functionality.
And people wonder why I think most of America is such a wasteland of consumerism.
Atlanta's other big attractions according to the hotel's brochure rack were the UPS museum and a grand tour of CNN's offices, and something called The Underground which is a historical area of the city with lots of "unique shopping". Also, a guided city tour... on Segways. Urgh. So, suffice it to say, I wasn't really expecting much out of my day there, other than the aquarium.
The aquarium was pretty sweet. Although, it made me finally realize that no aquarium is ever going to hold up to my childhood memories of going to the aquarium in Boston with my family. Whenever I remember it, it seems gigantic, bigger than any aquarium could possibly be, with a huge 6 level cylindrical tank which you walked up a spiral ramp around, looking at thousands of fish, sharks, and a blue whale inside. I know I know, very unlikely, but I said it was a childhood memory. Those kind of memories tend to grow up along with you. Anyway, the one in Atlanta has four whale-sharks, and they're fairly large. And hammerhead sharks, and those ones with a long saw for a nose. So I was happy. Oh! And Manta-Rays. I love Manta-Rays. They're my favorite aquatic animal.
Anyway, I finished up in the aquarium at around 2:00, and decided I would head over to the Underground, which sounded mildly more interesting than the UPS museum. The coke museum was right next door to the aquarium, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, I just couldn't. I thought about it for a minute, and started walking towards it, but when I saw the ticket line I realized that my soul would truly be damned to hell if I actually paid to go in the ... coca-cola... museum... So I backed away slowly and made for the Underground.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Underground... I saw a sign, a very interesting sign, that said 'Dalai Lama. Free event. 3:00 - 6:00'. I saw some hippie-looking people standing around, so I asked one of them half-jokingly if that meant that the Dalai Lama was really going to be there. And you know, he was. So, I went and saw the Dalai Lama. He was making an acceptance speech in the Olympic Park there, because Emory University had made him a Distinguished Visiting Professor, or some such. On the way in, just before going through park security, there were some fundies hanging around across the street screaming at people that they were going to hell if they listened to the Dalai Lama, and trying to hide the Dalai Lama signs by standing in front of them. Fundies are soooo cute and adorable, with their childish ways and grammar, I just had to snap a photo.
So it seemed like there were thousands of people in the park, waiting to see the Dalai Lama Show. Being bored, and having a camera in my hand, I took a few gratuitous crowd shots.
The girls holding the flag there kept shouting "Free Tibet! Stop killing the monks!" And I kept thinking, "Nobody here is killing any monks, nor are we enslaving Tibet. What are they getting so agitated about? They should go to the Chinese embassy. Or if it's Americans they want to shout at, they can go to Washington and chant about leaving Iraq and to stop murdering innocent Iraqi people. That at least is something worth yelling at a large gathering of Americans about. Oh wait, I get it, we're on TV." Oh, and did I mention that it was pouring rain all day, right up until around noon? Atlanta was having a pretty serious drought until yesterday. So people kept being all smug all day and saying that the Dalai Lama brought the rain with him, but that it stopped long enough for him to speak, because the rain started up again at around 7pm. True enough as far as it goes, although all that really concerned me about it was how the buildings kept disappearing into the clouds. Atlanta is kind of pretty with low clouds.
Anyway, after a bunch of Tibetans playing music, a three piece Atlanta jazz band, then more Tibetans wearing those yellow half-moon hat things and doing that deep OM chant, the Dalai Lama finally took the stage. He's such a nice old man. He thanked Emory University for making him a professor, although he did say that they shouldn't expect him to be around teaching classes much because he's very lazy. Much laughter and applause.
Then he spoke for an hour or so, in his charming broken English, often stopping mid-sentence to ask his translator "Whatssa Name?", about world peace and all that. Since he's the supposed reincarnation of the Buddha of compassion, he had some nice things to say about that. He said that compassion is not a religious idea, that he did not learn these important values from Buddhism, but from his mother. Compassion is born into every human being because after you are born, your survival depends upon the care of another human being. Turtles, who are abandoned on the beach by their mothers, Salmon, whose mothers die after spawning, and some animals whose mothers eat them, insects and so on, they are likely not capable of compassion. Compassion is therefore a human instinct, not a religious idea. He made a very clear point to say that religion is really not so very important, but that compassion is. If you believe in God, that is wonderful, but it is more important to have love and compassion. I think I can get behind that.
After the Dalai Lama Show was over, I saw a bunch of Tibetan monks hanging out so I walked over to them and did the little bow thing that everybody does when those guys are around. Very friendly guys. I pulled out my Rudy Rucker book, and showed them my bookmark and asked them if they knew where the photo had been taken. They smiled and one of them said "Oh, very good picture of His Holiness. This look like when he was in Mambamaramamabakok India."
So there you have it. Some things that I learned today: People holding signs and chanting slogans generally ought to be mistrusted, but people holding children are beautiful, (The Dalai Lama also said that "It is everyone's duty to give maximum affection to their children. It is not my duty though, because I'm a monk. Ha ha.") and that the Photo of His Holiness that fell out of Rudy Rucker's book was probably taken in Mambamaramamabakok, India. And I thought my trip was going to be boring. Sheesh. So the moral of this story is, if you avoid going to the easy, obvious things which commercialism would have you do such as cola museums, you get to see the Dalai Lama, have certain pressing photo-origin questions answered, and be condemned to hell for it by people who claim to follow Jesus, who, by the way, also preached a message of love and compassion. I flipped them the bird. A really fun day, as far as I'm concerned.
So you never made it to the underground? I didn't go the last time I was there but I went as a kid and remember it as being a cool place - because it's an old city street under the city. And I was in a bar with velvet pictures of naked ladies.
I went to the aquarium and it was very cool. I really liked the huge glass wall. My son was enthralled with it as well.
Posted by: Gary | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 17:47
No... I may hit that on Thursday. We'll see. Hopefully when I go, I won't get distracted by like, Bill Clinton giving a free speech in the park or something.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 18:09
That's some good travel luck. Is it against the Dolly Llama compassion/love guidelines to be super jealous of this story? Jeez. I was jealous of the photo in the Rucker book. This is way better than that. It's also a weird coincidence. What do you make of it?
Posted by: Miss Luongo | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 19:24
Wow... I should read your blog more often... coincidence? Well it's certainly curious... BTW, that fractal stuff is mind bending... so I'm catching up to see what's up... It is pretty neat that you ran into this event - the Dali L and all - and while I don't agree with his message as a whole, he does make some good sense about compassion and family values and all... I am an unabashed Jesus freak though and the Truth is still the Truth... to bad so many Christians believe they must attack others to get the point across. Jesus actually spent a lot of time attacking the "church," that is the religious folks, and taught that Loving God and others were the highest priorities... He who has ears... Look forward to seeing you in a week or so
Posted by: Dad | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 20:17
People, people. It's D-A-L-A-I. Lama. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Pronounced Dolly, but not spelled that way. And not like Salvadore, either. And there are no hairy four-footed beasts of burden. Llama. Sheesh.
What do I make of happening to find a picture of the Dalai Lama in a book, and just happening to have it on me a few weeks later when I accidentally and completely randomly happen upon a city on the day the Dalai Lama is to make a free, open to the public speech, and I just happened to get out of the aquarium just in time to decide not to go to the coke museum and on the way to somewhere else just happen to stumble across the park where the speech is just about to take place?
Meh, shit happens. We're all just pieces on the pinball machine of life.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 21:10
Dad, I don't know how else to make the point, but those people aren't Christians. They're cute, adorable, anachronistic Fundies, and if there is a hell, they'll be the first ones to go.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 21:14
Duh. Everyone knows it's Dolly Llama!
Fundies claim to be Christians. So, are you saying you can claim to be a Christian and still not be one be virtue of your actions? Conversely, can you claim not to be a Christian but still be one by virtue of your actions?
Posted by: Miss Luongo | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 00:35
disclaimer: the following comment should not be taken internally.
Michael was brought to Atlanta for a very specific purpose: to receive the holy word of the Llama. And then to communicate it back to us, his faithful blog... um... people. My son has been calling his Mama, "Llama Mama" and laughing about it, all week. The Llama also loves to laugh. Coincedence? I think not. Don't deny the Llama.
I say if you say you're a christian then you are. It doesn't matter what your actions are. Who's to say who's the wrong kind of christian? If you do, then I think you're acting just like the guy with the sign. Seems to me the whole thing is like poetry - you can interpret it however you want - unless if you went to a state school. ;) So if you read the bible and decide that Jesus wants you to be the leader of the new master race, then who are we to say it's not christian? You just have a different interpretation and it's probably WRONG. So no, you can't just be one magically by acting a certain way. You have to claim to be one first and make sure that as many people as possible know it. And even then you may be one of the wrong ones. Like Michael said, it's like a big pinball machine, and only some people are lucky or good enough to make it pop.
Posted by: Gary | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 08:31
That to me has always been the problem with the church. Each and every division is convinced that it has somehow interpreted the Bible better than all the others. Baptists, Congregational, Episcopalian, Catholic, Lutheran... bleh.
I think though, that the actual central message of Christianity is to love thy neighbor and not to trust authority. Jesus, as my Dad said, was all about pissing in the well of the Pharisees. So, taking his lead, I've decided not to trust the Church when it comes to my well-being.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 09:03
And to directly answer you Julie about claiming to be a Christian... Well, I think Gary's right as far as it goes, but I also think that I can call myself the King of Germany, but that doesn't make it so.
I think the thing a lot of so-called Christians forget is that back in Jesus' day, there was no Christian dogma, and I think that Jesus hated dogma, and that's what most people are practicing when they call themselves Christians. Also, on top of preaching that whole love and compassion thing, he was also telling people that God was in their own hands, that other people (Pharisees = any modern day religious authority figure) do not have the power to wield ANY religious authority over you. One of his favorite catchphrases was that the Kingdom of Heaven is within. In the church of messiestobjects, we interpret that to mean that you have to look inside to find God, and anyone who disagrees with me is going to hell.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 09:18
Llama Mama! That is funny.
Posted by: Miss Luongo | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 14:19
Llama Mama... dahli Lama... Alah bama... coincidence??? Or... nah, just a bit of nonsense... Hey! my only point here is that, honestly, there is truth out there. I happen to believe that it's embodied in Christ and that's my story that I'm stickin' to... If I can live his "rule"/teaching to love God first and all of you second I think that's doin' a lot and it demonstrates my faith in him... that's all. You choose... thanks for the conversation...
Posted by: Dad | Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 23:12
So, by saying that the truth is out there, you're denying that the Kingdom of Heaven is within, and going with the X-files?
Posted by: messiestobjects | Friday, October 26, 2007 at 10:49
"I want to believe."
Posted by: Gary | Friday, October 26, 2007 at 20:24