Turtles Are Auspicious Creatures

Someone suggested we meet at 7:30AM at the Kerry Center.  That’s a long schlep down and would necessarily make my morning time at the gym impossible.   Certainly though, I’d be up and at least the traffic wouldn't be bad.  I made may way on down at 6:30AM promptly into some bad but not impossible congestion.  Turning from Gao Bai Lu onto Jing Mi, there was a guy standing at the curbside, holding a snapping turtle tied by the tail.  The poor creature’s arms and legs were extended.  It was alive. 

In Phnom Penh, you used to be able to buy caged birds, down by the Mekong, which you could buy and set free, thereby boosting your karma.  Turtles are auspicious creatures in the monasteries of Thailand.  They are revered and cuckolded creatures in Chinese lore.  Was this guy offering up this hapless snapping turtle as an object of liberation?

I asked the driver if it had anything to do with Buddhism and he suggested it did not.  Rather these particular snapping turtles, were not allowed to be sold.  They were a specialty food and someone would buy it to eat, if the guy stood there, selling this illegal turtle, long enough. 

Down at the Kerry Center, in what’s become now a rather cavernous neighborhood, I’m reminded of the first time I stayed here, some twenty-one years ago.   I’m handcuffed with points to another loyalty program so never have stayed here since then, though I have entered the lobby and the bar many times.  I spy my meeting, sitting on the lobby couch, just like he said he’d be.  There are two men, but I feel pretty confident that one looks more “Brazilian” than the other.  First though, I must finish talking to my father, who is rather adamant about how he wants to settle something back there at home.  I keep eyeing the person I’m likely to meet while I reassure my father on the other line.

Thursday, 05/09/10