the book

I've been reading The Jew and the Lotus on my new Kindle. First the Kindle is an incredible device. I have something like thirty books, one magazine subscription and two daily newspaper subscriptions on that bad boy. It's lightweight, easy to use and a great conversation piece. If it was a woman, I'd marry her. Especially now that my ex was kind enough to tell me that she met someone new. Nice.

The book (which ex girlfriend (it didn't work out (but she was awesome (mostly)) gave me) [cool use of parens, no?] is pretty good. A bunch of Jews, from a half dozen different denominations, travel to India to meet the Dalai Lama and engage in dialogue about survival in Diaspora. The Lama* wants to learn from the Jews how they survived without a homeland. Most of the Jews didn't really think about the fact they had something to learn as well. In their defense, many of the Jews realize that they have all kinds of new philosophies and concepts to explore. I'm only about a third of the way through, but so far it's amazing.

I am looking forward to the summations at the end of this journey. It could go in a few directions. I suspect that the Llama will get some benefit from the experience of the Jewish people in finding their path to the future. I'm more curious about how the Buddhists will affect (effect?**) the Jewish leaders.

*When I was a kid, I didn't understand the difference between a Lama and a Llama. I could not figure out why people would travel to Tibet to climb mountains and talk to a big goat thing. Than I saw Dr. Doolittle with Rex Harrison. The movie had a PushMePullYou a two headed, no pooper, Llama that people sang songs about and I was really confused. I think that I finally figured it out when I was about 20. It's not that I'm stupid, I just never thought about it.

**I really have to look that up.