Are there two sides to paradise?

September 15, 2014

I guess we'll find out

Dear little friends,

Two sides to something doesn’t always mean one is wrong and one is right. From opposite sides of the street we can see something completely different from our neighbor. The top of a stone is smooth and sun-baked, until you turn it over you might not know about the sand and small wildlife living below. They scatter but you glimpsed them for just an instant.

Years ago we were in an unassuming guesthouse in Laos, and Bruce unzipped a pocket in his backpack to show me a tiny lacquerware box he had bought in Burma. I had met up with him in Bangkok, and we had been traveling together for a couple of weeks. He peeled off the rubber band holding it closed, opened it up wondering what, if anything, he had put inside those precious two cubic inches of storage space, and then looked up at me with wide eyes, clapping the lid back on again at warp speed.

“What?!?”

“Ants.”

The shiny insides of the box were crammed with minuscule ants. Upon opening a small ant riot ensued, threatening the peace and stability of our not-very-spacious room. It was going to be a long night if all of those ants were released from prison then and there.

After an innocent jaunt to the courtyard where the prisoners were released into the wild in their new home far from Burma all was well, at least for us. It may have been quite difficult for the new Lao invertebrate immigrants but then, it was far better than being inside the box. The look of astonished horror on Bruce’s face in the instant before he closed it again was so hilarious and classic that he can still make me laugh just by asking, “Remember when I opened the little box?”

Travel for me has often been like opening the exotic little box. You just don’t know what in the world will be inside, be it beguiling or horrific, or an addictive mixture of both. And the world is a big place, there could be anything.

For example, in a ten minute walk through Bangkok, I saw this.

And then, this, to soothe the ruffled nerves.

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