The American see

A modern sage

Chapter 22 The American see

Charles smoked marijuana in college. But he hadn't touched the stuff since taking a teaching position in UCLA.

So when Krebling's American cousin, Clark Norman, offered him a rolled stick, he was curious enough to try it again.

“Krebling is an innocent,” he said. “Just grew up that way. He told me that he had adopted you as a brother.”

The vernacular name for Sikhs everywhere, is the word, ' bhai.' It means brother.

“I feel poorly for the man,” Charles said,” there's one part of the world today that's changing marriage laws, while another part is trying so hard to preserve their existing marriages. Its hard to know when you are going to run into an opposite number.”

Clark agreed. Their eyelids had started to get lazy and the sounds seemed to reach every cell in the body. The feelings rose with a unique sense of the infinite, in what they are, and seemed to refer to all possibilities in an issue. The mind appeared relaxed and not in great haste to arrest such tendencies and direct them to the physical imperatives of the surroundings.

Along with the growing general euphoria, Charles was facing a curious sensation. He wasn't quite sure whether it was hunger or a sexual arousal.

They muddled about in their conversation, with speech that got incredibly slurry at times and in contact with issues that had no apparent rhyme or reason. Then Clark surprised Charles with the following comment.

“My wife's family comes from the Sind province in Pakistan. During the partition of India, they had to move all our belongings to Gujerat, where her parents still live.”

“Krebling was mentioning the changeling experience with the Bactrians in the old days,” he offered, amidst the haze and lethargy of his perceptions.

Clark seemed to nod but didn't say anything.

“There was a palace up in the Kirthar Hills, in a fort that is 16 miles in circumference. It still is the largest fort ever built in the world. Its called Ranikot today. In the old days it was referred to as ' Ala Sindh,' translated as ' high Sindh.' It was the palace of the Scythian queen, in an age when man was converting from fur skins to Hyacinth fibre cloth.”

Charles kept going, it appeared, more for himself, than anyone in particular.

“This was in and around 3000 bc. Sometime later, the queen's rule fell and produced a schism in the mind of man that caused a division in our experiences. It produced the legend of Hyacinth and Apollo in the west and Kalima in the east. When it began, the Kalima cult was a wicca-like organization, but in the years that followed, it led to the cultivation of the Siva family. In the west, Apollo led to the development of the Mycenaean and Hellenistic civilization.”

They paused to pull on the stick.

Clark didn't seem to register the significance of what he was saying. He was a man in the academic tradition himself but his specialization was in communication.

“You have an interesting field of study,” Clark suggested.

“I'm trying to bring an education to Krebling,” he spoke with a note of concern. Charles was enjoying his new found attitude of passion about people.

“Well, what is curious is the fact that we are descended from the Scythian experience. The ' ala Sindh ' cosmology is that of the perfect, one male. In association with society, it cultivates the subtle sensation that you are the only man for all the women in the world.”

Clark laughed and lit up the second stick. The smoke spiraled into the air with a thick, sickly scent. He offered the stick to Charles.

They had sat at the park opposite from Charles's apartment. The sun was setting and produced a brilliant show of colors in the tropical sky.

“It sounds like what you might come across as attitudes in America,” Clark casually informed.

“In an untrained mind, in a pastoral experience, in someone who did not finish their schooling,” Charles responded.

“Red neck,” said Clark.

“You might call it that,” Charles replied, reluctantly.

“Where were your parents in the US?” Clark asked.

“Southern California. I was born in the US but beyond that, I'm not sure if that represents a specific cultural identity. That would explain why the Americans tend to put up with everything, as a matter of curiosity.”

“That's why you are here?” Clark seemed repetitive on the issue.

“Trying to find my Indian roots,” Charles replied.

They sailed on wobbly feet back to Clark's car.

“Just wanted to know what all the fuss was about,” Clark seemed to be saying, referring to the situation with Krebling.

“An old love story,” Charles summarized the experience.

Clark waved as he left. He was leaving for the US the following day.

The effect from the marijuana had peaked in Charles. It mixed with his thoughts and briefly brought to him, the sensation of being the only perfect male in the world. He smiled.

Its an attitude of the mind, that expresses itself with platitudes. It leads to a platonic relationship with others. It is the archetype in the relation of a brother to the sister.

In the Mahabarata, the Indian guru, Vasudeva, had explained a manner of training the mind that involved diminishing the ' ala Sindh ' sensation to that of a potency, to be fully achieved someday in the future. Its after all, a collective will of the world, as it moves to its perfection.

Charles postponed the sensation. For now, he had to get something to eat. He was hungry.

Reviews

[patricia]

i loved the line....i feel poorly for the man.
you have incorporated a lot of humour into this chapter, and while the conversation still made much wise sense (marujana notwithstanding) it became quite surreal in light of them being stoned. A great chapter. Thanks.