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fourteen years

fourteen years

i don’t know what to think,

my mind’s unclear, still.

peace in my heart is closer now

than at any other time in my life

but clarity still eludes me.


i’m less healthy now than when

i arrived but older, and wiser too.

those are the facts as i review having

lived in Thailand for fourteen years.


friendship, kindness, pride and dignity

are the peaceful, life-enhancing

themes i associate with Thai people.

i never felt that way about the people

in any of the other places i lived.


we foreigners set great store by the facts

we know but life as an expatriate in Thailand

has taught me that an entire archive of

knowledge and information is no substitute

for a deep well of sympathy and understanding.


the language barrier is frustrating, but can

be overcome by a warm smile and an effort

to speak Thai, no matter how many times sounds

must be repeated to endow them with the right

tones to finally make oneself understood.


being here these short fourteen years has influenced

and changed my karma forever, any way I look at it.

a world of want

a world of want


a world where many have gone without when

others held more than they needed has ever been

a place of vague promises and false facts.


some say we shouldn’t share because that will

take away the motivation to succeed from

those that haven’t made it (or taken it) yet.


they say that sharing what they’ve gotten isn’t

fair reward for the hard work, inventiveness and

selfish instincts that created a legacy of luxuriance.


often, they castigate the poor for the moral failure

of not having created success from opportunities

that proliferate for all to embrace with hard work.


and that those who won’t learn to swim and win

races deserve to sink into a sad state of ignominy

and endure blame for failure to pass life’s basic tests.


i say that those ideas are just attempts to justify greed

and selfishness, they have nothing to do with lives of

caring and sharing that most people hope for.


and that people who need to frame ideas that justify

not sharing live illusions of happiness underpinned by

fear of losing what they have, and are poor in spirit.


and i say that people who are poor in spirit and in

fear of loss don’t have a worthy life because, isolated,

they are not enriched by the fellowship of sharing.