at Randy's

I'm at a diner called Randy's, settling down for my lone meal of the day. The employees are friendly and curious; the backpack was, as usual, a conversation piece: it led to questions about what I was doing, where I was going, and so on.

As you see from the series of photos I've posted, I've passed by a huge structure that someone called "the Starbucks building" (whether that means "corporate HQ" is a mystery; the guy who said the phrase was talking to his teenaged son, and I didn't hear the rest of the conversation); I passed by a huge property owned by Boeing, then by King County International Airport (for small planes only), then by the Museum of Flight, which appeared to be doing decent business for a Sunday. I'm not far from the point where I'll be hopping onto the Green River Trail. From there, I'll hit the Interurban Trail and schlep the rest of the way to Kent.

I had a great meeting with Julie Welch this morning. She had called me yesterday morning while I was at Choboji; we met today around 10:10AM and talked until about 11:30-- another conversation I probably should have recorded but didn't.

Julie's been following the blog for some time; she has also done me the great favor of spreading the word among various dharma communities on my behalf. Julie was involved in the "Seeds of Compassion" event that brought luminaries like the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu together. That event, though over, has led to subsequent activities with which Julie, who strikes me as extremely energetic, remains involved.

While our conversation ranged over a number of topics, one Walk-relevant insight Julie shared was that I would need to continue to spread the word and gain readership for the momentum (and funding) to snowball. I agree.

Julie also has an interesting claim to fame: back in the 70s, she was involved in the making of a book and TV series titled "Religious America," both of which explored the American religious landscape. Julie says the book has long been out of print, but I'm betting you can find it in certain specialty bookstores if you search hard enough.

When I told Julie about how guilty I often felt when receiving donations (I don't feel as though I've earned them), she had an interesting reply: sometimes, allowing people to donate money "gives them a chance to give."

Before Julie and I went our separate ways, she succumbed to temptation and tried hefting my backpack. Quite a few people have done this: Woody in Arlington did this back when it was 58 pounds, for example, and Paul's girlfriend Ginger had a go this morning. There's an essay topic in this, I think-- something about the things we do in the name of human empathy, about our occasional desire to feel the burdens of the Other. It restores my faith in humanity to see this small and often humorous gesture ("man, that's heavy!"); it means that it's not enough to reduce human existence to suffering, or to reduce the human character to selfishness. As Karl Rahner would say, we're self-transcending creatures; our curiosity often fuels our compassion and helps us to grow as people-- as living things in a living world.


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