Checkered Lounge Pants

I flew back to Canada 3 weeks ago and been visiting with friends and family and getting reacquainted with climate and time zone (noon here is midnight at my condo in Asia). I came in from a two hour hike yesterday to the plan to go see a Pow Wow. ( noun   pow-wow.  a North American Indian ceremony involving feasting, singing, and dancing.) That was my first time I witnessed a Pow Wow. It was an international gathering of First Nations and sponsored by the Manitob Ahee council. The drum groups were shivering and the dancers were of all ages and shook the entire floor when the entire nations assembled. It was spectacular.  I had a very good time for two hours and felt more than welcome but then started to feel outside so I left. Nonetheless I would enjoy attending again in a more natural aboriginal setting if the chance ever arises.  Two memories will stay with me from the PowWow. They are: 1. a quote that went "Religion has all the good answers ...

I am, by any reasonable measurement, old. And yet, more often than not, I feel ageless. Not young, mind you. Ageless. Without age. Nevertheless, the two things create a sort of cognitive dissonance--when the fact of something doesn't sync up with the experience of it. Of course, it's possible that what I'm feeling is the fact. Ageless is some kind of basic spiritual truth, and being old is simply an experience that we choose to have. We could, for instants, pee often and slowly; make odd, involuntary grunting noises while getting out of the chair; have difficulty seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, copulating, remembering, bending our fingers and breathing, while remaining a field of awareness that exists outside the illusion of time. We also could complain all day and take lots of naps. As I said, it's a choice.