A rare outing for that t shirt

Nirankar rocks

Simon, Conrad, Carlos rapt

 

Gary joins in

A few weeks back I threw a party at my home for the book (and my birthday). I felt I should, after all the people who live in Arenas have, knowingly or not, been companions along the way, they have seen (and put up with) my swinging mood, sudden disappearances or constant distractions.

The thing is, that most of them don’t understand (or read) English any too well. Which made the whole thing rather more inventive than it might otherwise have been. Food, music, games and stories were all improvised and the bits of the house that feature in the book bore witness and were pointed out - much to the delighted embarrassment of its creators, who were amongst the very varied crew that turned up to play. There was much to savour, from Fidel’s curried prawns, to the expression on Simon’s face in one of the more sublime moments of musical improvisation conjured out of thin air by Sergio Fulqueris and Nirankar Khalsa - who had only just met. But most of all, what I loved about it was that it seemed so perfectly planned, when in actual fact, very little had been planned at all. Not for the first time I was told “you sure know how to throw a party”. If so, it seems to me that remarkably little is required and that the art is simply to let things happen.

Yesterday afternoon I had arranged a call with Gary, but it turned out he had double booked himself. He suggested we do it another time and I heard myself say “but I have planned my afternoon around this”. How insolent of the world in general, and Gary in particular not to submit itself to my plans…. Oh dear. Strong evidence that ‘homo sovieticus’ is still alive and kicking in me (you’ll need to read the book to understand this reference!`). Still, it won’t help to beat myself up (i.e. be in judgement), so best to have a good laugh at myself and set about today with a new enthusiasm and respect for practise and a good dose of humility.