The Journey to Lithuania

6-22-2004:  Flew from SFO to Toronto, Toronto to London Heathrow, bused to London Gatwick, flew from London Gatwick to Vilnius.  All told, over 24 hrs spent commuting, flying, and waiting.  I can't say how tired I was at the end, I was too tired to formulate the question.

Landing in Toronto  Landing in Toronto

On the SFO to Toronto flight, I sat next to two people who could run for the archetype of the year of Berkeley hippies in search of enlightenment.  The man looked just like Spaulding Grey with Hindu prayer beads on his wrists, the woman pinned a picture of her female guru on the seat in front of her.    They received their special vegetarian dishes first, and Spaulding Grey saw my absorbtion in my book as a pretense to hide my extreme desire for his food, so he offered me some.  The woman was inspired to give me some as well;  they seemed disappointed when I declined. 

Then they both pulled out a special lime, one for each, and sprinkled lime juice over their vegetables.  An airline stewardess noticed the limes, made a positive comment, and so the woman tried to explain how their limes were blessed by their guru.   She was so special that even at a young age the guru was always smiling, even when her parents beat her to make her stop.  Unfortunately, the woman kept pointing to the guru's picture, which the stewardess couldn't see.
The seat in front of the woman was empty, so the stewardess said "What a great friend, she blesses your limes and doesn't need to eat one either!"
 
It took some time for the stewardess to understand that the guru was not an imaginary friend.