Wild Sound

From Serpico:

So yesterday was Buddha’s birthday. I guess he’s pretty old by now. The Mayor of our borough invited us English teachers to march in the parade, which featured a fire-breathing paper dragon float (yes, paper and fire), beautiful dancers with pink traditional clothes and wings, and a hell of a lot of grandmothers moaning chants. And pushing.

Starting at City Hall, at a windy sunset, we bowed to all these monks – the smooth kind, like you see in SUV commercials, wearing silver gowns and silver Nikes beneath them – took our lotus lanterns, and marched for a couple of hours around our “gu” taking up half of the twelve-lane streets. (On the other half, cars were whizzing by playing techno.) Some old men in the parade welcomed us kindly. And as always, people watching laughed at the non-Korean folk pretending to be Buddhist, or they pointed or waved in friendly curiosity, or they yelled whatever English they knew: “I love you!” “Nice to meet you!” “Bushy is crazy man!” “OK! Michael Jackson!”

Filed by cynthia rockwell at 12:46 pm under Uncategorized
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