1000 Words

Dear Birth,
(NB: Don't worry mom, I'm not pregnant...pregnant get people get their dot at the end of the sentence every month right? That's what I thought.)

My new thing these days (besides discussing things thats make the male species gag) is to be on the cutting edge of this little thing called Life. I even looked up 'new' in the thesaurus...but today is not about new words. No no no folks its about something I think I'm going to appropriately name "1000 Words" as in pictures speak 1000 words. The objective here is to sit back and let the picture tell the story to the audience. That's bullshit. Obviously I'm going to write, cause if I just stuck a picture of like a cow with a red bonnet a whole bunch of things would go through your head.....like is the cow her godmother? Did she eat the cow? Did the cow jump through a ring of fire? Exactly. So let us hold hands, bow our heads, and embark on this journey together...

This is me! Yay me! Those two figures in the background are my parental units, and those little hills in the very back background are part of the Himalayas. That shiny thing that looks really bright is the sun, and we my dear friends are hiking on the roof of the world.

Hindu myths speak of a mountain from which four rivers flow from giving life to all areas they pass through. This area is known as the 'navel of the world' and is described as, "a vast column of 84 000 leagues high, its summit kissing the heavens." Though nobody has ever reached the peak of Mount Kailash (which reaches 6714 meters), it is an important object of worship for four religions (Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bons) and thus a kora (religious pilgrimage) destination.

The picture was taken on Day 2 of the 3 day kora (it only takes locals 1 day, perhaps a few more if they are prostrating) and in the early morning probably one hour before we summited the highest point in the hike. I can recall having to wake up after a night's sleep in the fetal position and answering to nature's desperate call. And I can tell you that there is nothing more rejuvenating than having to expose your bare ass to the elements especially when the wind chill is putting the temperature in the negatives. I suppose the positive side to this is that I can now brag about squatting at 5000m + and surviving...I think I might have a t-shirt...oh yes, here it is I made it myself! Anyways we ascended 500 meters bypassing all those wacky Euros with their wacky walking sticks but found out we were only allowed to stay a few minutes at the top otherwise our brains would do funny things, like explode or clot or something. So after quickly documenting ourselves at the top, we turned and began the hike down. Being the friendly person that I am, I had made a few friends. One was named Tashi and the other Dele (pronounced deli) and they were both dogs (DOGS ARE PEOPLE TOO!). Together their names meant "good day!" in Tibetan, and since I befriended them in the morning and those were the only words I knew I found it fitting. I think Tashi ended up staying with me the entire journey maybe because she knew how awesome I was, but most likely because I fed her all my food.

I didn't quite realize how long this was going to be, so I best be stopping otherwise the title '1000 words' will serve as a disclaimer and people will get bored. So I'm stopping...now.

Source: my journal