Chillin', Waiting for the Bus

In a couple of hours I will for the first time in at least 20 years board a Greyhound Bus, which shall whisk me from Jackson to Mobile in about five hours. For me it will be a Freedom Ride in reverse. I graduated high school in 1961 and left Jackson to go to Xavier University in Cincinnati that Fall. It was at the height of the Civil Rights movement with lots of students integrating the buses and getting arrested when they arrived at the Greyhound Bus Station, now registered with the Department of Interior as a National Landmark, in Jackson. My last summer there, I joined the local chapter of SNCC and helped with Voter Registration. My parents were very active in an Interracial Council of Churches, and we had crosses burned in our yard. Exciting times; much has indeed changed, but much, also indeed ,remains the same.

Another reason why I am marching this week is to immitate, to a very minor degree, the excellent good work of another Vietnam Veteran, Claude Anshin Thomas. Thomas after struggling as most combat vets do with anger, rage, intimacy, a checkered educational/vocational career, became a devotee of Thich Nhat Hanh. For the past decade he has been a Buddhist monk and has made numerous Peace Walks all over the world.

In 1987, after I got out of a psyche hospital for major depression, actually misdiagnosed PTSD during the insanity of the Iran-Contragate scandal, I attended a retreat with Thich Nhat Hahn and Daniel Berrigan at the Open Center in New York City. He helped me immensely: I described to him how upset I still got whenever I heard the whump, whump, whumping sound of a Huey helicoptor, how it reminded me of the horror I experienced in Vietnam. He paused, looked down for several seconds, looked back up at me with a wide open smile and said something to the effect, "Instead of thinking of hell, let that sound be like a meditation bell to remind you to be grateful that you survived."

I shall carry Claudle's and Thich Nhat Hanh's spirits with me this week as I make the trek along the Gulf Coast.

Comments

[Becca]

Good luck, Dad! Keep cool and keep your cool and keep your eyes on the prize. We're all glad to hgave you "back" and want to keep you that way! Love you much!

[ltbrin]

Hey, thanks Rebecca. No, this journey is much shorter and not nearly as far away. I shall hold you and Jennifer along with Brian and Eric and of course the four kids, Zack, Camden, Lindsey and Josh in my thoughts as I make this trek. Give them hugs for me so I can hear be bouyed by there energy. Love, Dad.

[vegan recipes]

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