My best friend

[ConsAreLiars]

Many, very many in that category.

But tonight, for some reason, one stands out and his memory reminds me of so many others. But he, like them, carried the same message. We are the people, we are one people.

I had spent a day exploring the Buddhist caves and the art they contained at Ajanta in India ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajanta_Caves ). I had taken a bus to get close to the site but decided to walk back to the nearest village to get some food and sleep. The curator of the site insisted on accompanying me and carrying my pack on his bicycle. So he is surely another best friend.

So we followed a path with him as protector and carrier, and about halfway there we were confronted by a group of Maharashtran tribals. The leader of the group offered me a drink of the local rotgut, which I accepted. He gently reminded me of the proper hygiene, not to touch the the bottle to the lips but use the thumb as a prophylactic, and we did a couple Namasté's and continued the trek.

He told me something we all know, but sometimes forget. We are brothers and sisters, parents and children and elders, one family, whether we speak the same language or not.

As I approached the village, after the curator had turned back and my pack seemed a bit too heavy too carry any further I dropped it off at a shrine on the outskirts of the village I was nearing, after through sign language or such, asking permission and assurance. Just an open shelter, some deity, a roof, back wall, and a few people hanging there. I went on to search food/shelter in the village, found both and although those who gave me shelter (more best friends), a floor in their dwelling, warned me that the shrine I had left my pack in was a haven for criminals (untouchables?) and returned to find it intact. More best friends there.

I've had the good fortune to travel many places, not by jet and tourist bus, but on the ground and in the same ways the people of those lands got around. I met best friends every place I traveled.

Religion, race, language, skin color, ideology, caste or class, none of that mattered at all. After all, we are all human.

Of course, there are the true monsters, the true aliens, the true non-humans, the entities who really want to destroy us. They are the devourers. The are the transnational captitalist entities whose only goal is to maximize their profits and consume everything they encounter. No human values in their operating manual at all. Indeed, destroying all human values and the very value of human life is a part of what they must do to succeed and survive.

So we fight back. By any means. By every means. And rather than fighting over which is the best, we agree that whatever fight is being waged on whatever front is worth something. And we fight not only for ourselves and our family, but for our best friends, even those we never had the good fortune to meet, everywhere in the world. Good decent people who face the same enemy.

[Faux pas]

1. Beautiful, thank you!

r number 5

[roguevalley]

2. what a great tale. Thank you.

[ConsAreLiars]

3. Thanks to all for the reads, recs and replies. (kick - nt)

[Bluerthanblue]

4. absolutely beautiful-

thank you

thank you

perfect.

:grouphug:
peace~

[ConsAreLiars]

5. Thank you. He was one of many who taught me.

At the shrine where I dropped off my pack, expecting to come back and sleep there (I had a tent and sleeping bag) since the village was too far off the beaten path to be likely to have any hotel, I tried to convey to those there my question of if it would be safe/OK to leave my pack there for a while. One in particular seemed to get what I was asking and gave me that assurance. Another best friend. Several, from all walks of life, in just that few hours.

[countryjake]

6. I was the first to recommend this, the other night...

seconds after you posted it. Now I have to kick it up cause I don't think very many had a chance to read it.

Fine writing.