Final Preparations

12.1 Almost time to swap lives...and set aside stability, habit and familiarity. I love to travel because I have learned to bridge gaps. I connect equally to military men and prostitutes, AIDS patients and backpackers, street children and aristocrats. This is my ability and one of my greatest gifts, and I am blessed with the opportunity to utilize it. Globalization brings images to mind of industrial gloom, war, exploitation. The destroyers of our planet rely on one thing: communication. But communication is now for everyone to use. We peacemakers have the power to use communication in positive ways. War is globalized - how about love? How can I be part of this necessary step forward?

12.3 Take-off...Ali drives me to the airport and we catch a breathtaking glimpse of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, who is standing half-tall and glowing in the morning sun that is reflecting blindingly off her snowy rim. She blew her damn top off, Ali says. I wonder aloud about her forceful release of potential energy, a dusting of magical mountain dust. It blew right over to Portland and invigorated us with a hot, lava-infused kick. Portland is full of vibrant creativity these days. Like a martyr Mt. St. Helens destroyed herself so that we could marvel at pure geologic power: a reminder from Shiva (Hindu god of destruction) that change is constant and that we are never in full control.

12.3 On the plane: Ali gave me the sweetest gift, a former travel journal filled with her sweetest words. For me, my connections to other beings exist out of time and out of space. When I travel I carry all my relations with me, sharing them with strangers by letting their light shine through me. My ties remain strong even when I am away. And still, leaving gets harder every time as my roots grow deeper.

12.4 Thoughts thought in Bangkok: As the second of my four flights to Cambodia descended towards a tiresome layover in Seoul, I looked out upon a clear gray sky at symmetrical row after row of structures which I could not comprehend. They were clustered into repetitive grids even more precise than those which humans are usually inclined to build. As we fell lower towards the ground, I realized that these were not houses but cinder block high-rise apartments. Their utter lack of color or variety was mysterious and dismaying -- then it suddenly occurred to me that we were flying over North Korea, and that this was likely (hopefully) the closest I would ever come to witnessing this strange, godless place. I checked the flight map to confirm.

I remember a story I once heard about when Laos hosted the Asian Youth Olympics. The opening ceremony was held on an especially rainy Spring day. As the young athletes arrived to Vientiane in tour buses, they passed under a banner showing photographs of the rulers of each of their nations. As the North Korean kids got off the bus, they spontaneously broke down shrieking and sobbing. Everyone else was puzzled by their screams...it turned out that their hysterics were triggered by the way that Kim Jong Il's photo on the dripping banner had begun to sag a few inches below those of the other leaders. This sacrilege abomination, cause for severe punishment, jolted the children's entire worldview.

12.6 Three days later, finally in Cambodia. Cambodia is a land full of lawlessness and outlandish antics that become packaged into epic, fascinating stories. You overhear them everywhere you go. Prostitutes, heroes, hit men, street children, international fugitives, pedophiles, poachers, tribes, peace workers and heroes: these are the characters that paint the legend-scape of a country just emerging from the ashes of genocide and war.

Many of the tales center around the government's corruption: after 30 years of war and violence, this country is rising and remembering its prior greatness, potential and how personal dedication makes these things possible. Until the last few years, basic security and survival were people's main preoccupations...as these slowly become tenable, the Cambodian soul is freed and can dream of more colorful, brighter possibilities. Many Cambodians are finally becoming able to ask more out of life.