Inge took this shot a few years back when I travelled to met her in Tibet. She’d been living and working in a town called Ganzi (Karze if you’re Tibetan) teaching English at a free school. I’d arrived the day before — it had taken me 5 days to get there from Sydney.
She took this shot while we were walking back from the main Ganzi monastery after receiving a surprise blessing — hence the red dot. Ganzi is 3,800 meters above sea level and I remember being rather puffed.
As I look at the photo now, I see is a tired, puffy-faced old geezer who’s looking forward to a beer.
The poem is a favourite. I obviously think it applies.
a warning to my readers
by Wendell Berry
Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I
may have spoken well
at times, is not natural.
A wonder is what it is.
So much more than an old geezer xx