Gaki N Me If you love to talk about the world, love Asian idols, this is the place.

I took a photo of this a monk when I was in Ho Chi Minh City. With no worldly possessions other than the saffron robe on him and the bowl, he begs for food every day standing on the slope of a tourist resort. In Vietnam, young boys of around 7 are inducted to the monastery. While I was painting this, my boys were really curious why he stands there with an empty silver bowl. It's to draw the charitable character of passersby so that they would have good karma in the end. I could have posted the photo too but I now believe that you could take whatever you could from my interpretation. It was indeed a sunny day when the photo was taken but he would be there rain or shine everyday and would only retire when he has sufficient food for the day. The other day, we were talking about moving back down to California soon, before retirement, and I told my husband we would sell everything or give away everything we have except 2 suitcases for each person - the military way. Unlikely of course...but I am ready to shed the baggage. But we would never come close to this person in the painting.