Last week Mary and I took a whirlwind trip to Madison, Wisconsin to see the Dalai Lama speak. We drove most of the way up on Thursday night, stopping at Chris and Lisa’s to see their beautiful new baby Lily. I love holding the little ones but I’m glad we’re done with that phase. :) We crashed in Rockford Thursday night and finished the trip up Friday morning.
When we got to Madison we had lots of time so we went to the UW Arboretum. We went to the visitor’s center and badgered the poor lady with questions about what we should do both at the Arboretum and around town. Then we took a nice little walk on some of the trails around the visitor’s center. There were tons of birds out – mostly red winged blackbirds and swallows. Here’s a nice nature picture for you.
Probably the coolest thing was when we were walking through the prairie area and a sandhill crane came circling out of the sky and landed maybe 30 feet from us. Here’s a picture I took if you’re interested. Later, we came across another one close to the visitor center. He yelled at us (apparently it was their guard call) and then took off.
After that we headed into campus and the main drag, State Street. Here’s a pic of Mary at the top of the art museum there with the capitol in the background. Here’s a slightly arty picture of the Orpheum Theater sign across the street. Just playing with the camera…
Eventually, we made it to the Kohl Center where the Dalai Lama was speaking. There were a number of loud crazy preachers outside and a reasonably large waiting crowd trying to ignore them. There were also a number of monks wandering around speaking with people. We just lay in the grass and watched the interesting crowd. We went in fairly early, which it turns out was a good idea as the security and large crowd (12,000) meant for big lines once the talk got closer.
In fact, they ended up starting about 30 minutes late. His Holiness the Dalai Lama came out and got some quick introductions from the chancellor and then he spoke for about an hour about compassion. I’m not sure I totally understood all of the points he made. At the end he answered some questions that had been collected from somewhere. One of the questions was about how parents can instill compassion in their children. The Dalai Lama offered a few ideas but at the end admitted that he had rarely spent time taking care of children so he wasn’t really sure. I think Mary felt good that he didn’t know the answers either. :) There was also a question about his daily routine where he talked about getting up very early (3 am) to meditate and how important breakfast was since monks do not eat solid food after noon. I got a kick out of his comment about his afternoon meetings: “Some meetings good; some meetings waste of time.” I hear ya.
He was also asked about the status of Tibet and the Chinese government. He spoke for quite a while about his negotiations and the aims of the Tibetan people. He said that they were willing to give up Tibetan independence if the Chinese government granted them autonomy and the ability to establish and manage their own culture, education, etc. That seemed like a new strategy to me, so I’m not sure if that was new news.
I didn’t take any pictures at the Kohl Center as there were many large and prominent signs saying not to do so. However, the Dalai Lama was in Chicago the following day and here is a good link to some pictures from the Chicago visit.
After the talk, we fought our way out of the Madison traffic and a long drive home in the dark and rain, and eventually a good sleep in our own beds. Definitely a fun trip and I had a great time talking and hanging out with Mary without the kids around for a change.
