Dalai Lama

Wednesday Warren and I went to see the Dalai Lama at the Cannon Center. On the way in we saw lots of folks we knew, some of whom brought their kids. I started to feel guilty for not bringing mine, but then I remembered that my kids are wild monkeys. I actually think Satchel would have been fine on his own, but Jiro would have scratched Satchel's eyes out had he found out we didn't bring him. (Or just cried a lot.) So...it was just me and Warren on a date with his holiness.

The DL started off joking right away and it was clear that he wasn't bothered by that silly little fist bump Tuesday. He had a translator on stage with him, but only needed his help for a word here and there. For the first ten minutes or so there was something wrong with his mic and I started to panic. Thankfully it got sorted out and the whole auditorium burst into applause. The DL laughed and said, "So I have to start all over again?"

After about an hour of talking, he spent another thirty minutes answering questions from the audience. (We had been asked to write them down prior to the start of his speech.) One question read, "I'm nine and my dad just died. What should I do?" (How heartwrenching is that?!) The DL started off by acknowledging the sadness of the situation and then answered that the boy should not stay sad because that would upset his dad. Instead he should fulfill his father's dream for him, like by studying hard and being happy. I thought that was a pretty awesome answer. Even though my dad has been gone for over eleven years, I often stop and wonder if he'd be proud of me.

Someone else asked how parents can best teach their children about peace. The DL said he had no idea because he had never been a parent, but that his own mother's kindness had a profound effect on him. He said it was especially important for mothers to show compassion. He also suggested showering our children with affection and spending more time with them. Again, an awesome answer. And best of all, two very do-able things.

My column this week, Easy to tell time short with these 2 monkeys, is actually about affection, although you'd never know it from the title!