Lief Oct05

4Oct05

I just dropped Lief at the Airport at 6am on his way to Thailand aboard the 730 flight on China Air. It was a brief and interesting visit. For a person with few possessions, who uses almost no resources, Lief leaves behind a psychic wake - vibrations, a signal of passage. He flew in from the Big Island- Doris had left keys for him to get in. He had called me when he first got to the house - I offered him any food we had, the guest account on the computer, and some directions to the post office. Later when I got home, I found him sitting in the dark using the computer. Automatically, I turned on the light and a boy, a young man, clothes stained hard by dirt and wear, with the outward look of the homeless, greeted me with a big smile, clear eyes, not of the homeless, though he had no home. But what exactly, a voyager, a wanderer - quite a different thing. I asked him a question. Why Thailand? His answer; it is the best of all countries given a choice of all countries lying within 15 degrees of latitude from the equator. People are still friendly. Thailand has a king who advised his people to eat brown rice instead of white because it was more nutritious. Lief talked to many people who have traveled the region. A natural question - how will he live? Perhaps he will teach english. This I think is an answer designed more of a feint than the real answer, he will find a way to live, and without money, if possible. How long does he plan to stay in Thailand? Some years, perhaps seven. The phone rings. It's for Lief. My questions end. It's John and there is a letter for Lief in the mailbox which I retrieve while they talk. I talk to John briefly then it's back to Lief, a longish conversation. Lief a little quiet afterward for some minutes.

Lief I learn, is a devotee of fruit, or possibly of a specific fruit, the durian. Later when Doris and Kelly came home, he told us his story of durian, then a story of the two coconuts he brought with him, which he deftly slashed open with his machete, and which he shared with us as we ate dinner. He related a tale of the avocadoes of winter and the avocadoes of summer, of passion fruit, of the farms of Puna, Kona, Hana and elsewhere on Maui, of people who would give him fruit and of those who would not. There were wanderers he encountered, some of whom had passed through the Thailand in his future, their past. Lief, I learn, eats no meat, no fish, no fowl, no eggs or milk. The ocean offers little sustenance, except perhaps some limu. He eats no vegetable touched by fire, broiled, boiled, warmed, or otherwise altered by external chemistries and energies. He eats no rice, no taro, no poi. He will eat fresh fruit and vegetables that can be eaten raw, and as far as I know, nothing else. He uses little water, little or no electricity, has no use for fire. He has no job, no money, lives a life of one who has taken a vow of poverty. And survives. He mentioned no religeon or spiritual beliefs.

We had an early morning ahead and I needed sleep. I set up some bedding on the floor. Doris brought towels and offered the use of our shower (repeatedly) which he refused (firmly). I gave Lief a clean long sleeved shirt which he tried on, accepted then folded, and apparently took with him. He slept in the clothes I found him in, amid the small collection of his possessions, neatly laid out on the sofa. It seems that he has some tiny electronic devices, a thumb drive or camera, a knife, and a machete. He had a some money, a passport, a bank account. He carries no books. All he owns is in a 20 gal hemp bag. He lives by foraging, by design a way of life requiring little money. He sorted his stuff and culled a nylon hammock from his kit - too heavy, and left behind the photos John sent to him, adhering to his "no picture" rule.

On the way to the airport I thought of asking him why, not when, he would come back, but instead asked him how long he would stay in Thailand - what would make him leave. It would be because there was a better country, or that he would be unable to escape urbanization. He has heard that Vietnam is like Thailand prior to it's economic development. His goal would be to find a living far from the cities and encroachment of the global economy as possible. I observe that Thailand has some of the desirable characteristics because it has not been conquered in recent history. In my mind is the knowledge that conquest and colonization by Europeans left in it's wake deep cultural wounds and spiritual destruction of biblical proportions. I looked at the map and the equatorial regions of Earth - Thailand is a natural choice. The options quickly drop out. South America - uh no. Africa from the Congo in the west to Somalia in the East - awash in war. India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos Cambodia, Malaysia, ... Thailand.

I brought up a favorite topic of mine, that of human-kinds origin in africa, and how we people spread. Lief, familiar with this, added that was about 50000 years ago. Some thousands of years later the people reached N Europe. It's known that the aborigines of Australians have been there about 40,000 years. We would still be in Africa but for the young - and suggested that Lief may represent another wave of migration. I also mentioned that the wave of homosapien followed an older migration of homo-erectus, and that in the course of our antecedants migration, homo-erectus walked the earth no more. He didn't know that. Migration is old old old and it maybe part of our genetic programming. Since the beginning, mothers and fathers watched their children crawl, then stand up, and walk away into the wilderness in search of a better life, never to be seen or heard from again.

Somehow in our conversation to the airport, he told me of his belief that when you earn money, you take it from someone else. Of course, compelled by the instinct of the older males of our specie, and by way of providing him an alternative to consider, I in turn told him that we choose to be predatory or not. It's our choice that determines the harm in currency. I reflect on the turmoil created by the pressure of a money economy in Thailand, it's legendary sex trade, but say nothing. When we parted, I wished him luck, call if there was trouble. He looked me in the eyes, smiled, thanked me, twisted the carrying strap of his hemp sack around his shoulder and walked off into the wilderness of the airport.