The Dalai Lama at Smith College
This morning I saw the Dalai Lama and it was lovely waking up around 6:20 to make a rather convenient pilgrimage to Smith College. The Dalai Lama was amazing: charismatic, thoughtful, and above all funny. At one point he even laughed at the audience for asking the 'very Western' question "What do you think is the most important thing to focus on doing in our lives?" Everyone else was funny too, but because everyone on stage seemed so very awkward. Hampshire President Hexter bobbled his head as he had to read every other word of his speech off the page. The music provided by the Smith College Glee Club was an embarrassing and elaborate version of "This Little Light of Mine." Representatives stumbled around the Dalai Lama who appeared to be terribly amused by the whole thing while also toying uncomfortably with the graduate cap given to him to wear on a very hot stage. The graduation robes he was given to wear gradually disappeared, and I swear I thought I saw him hiding the robes so he wouldn't have to wear them anymore.
Smith College presented the Dalai Lama with a generous check and a honorary degree. Hampshire gave him a "college citation" and a blown up picture of an sustainable "ambulance" (a bike with a wheeled chair hooked up to the back) with no explanation or mention of sustainability the gift looked rather laughable and bizarre. President Hexter of Hampshire College promised the "ambulance" would be delivered and emphasized it was designed by Hampshire students. The "ambulance" was met with curled lips and chuckles from a confused and amused audience. Big sister Smith seemed to have completely one-upped us in the gift department until later when a student representative gave him a Smith track coat and a bunch of books about Smith and in the paraphrased words of the student "and [Smith's] tireless dedication to social equality." So Smith decided in a fabulously cocksure and narcissistic flourish that the Dalai Lama would most value a gift basket of propaganda about Smith. Meanwhile the Hampshire student, who was in fact an ethnic Tibetan exchange student, offered him books written by Hampshire alumni on a range of topics all selected for their adherence to Hampshire's philosophy "to know is not enough." The poor girl from Hampshire was so nervous and scared, and in a sign of respect and deep compassion he reached out to her, smiling broadly, and touched her face to comfort her as she nervously stumbled. By the end the gifts were about equal, both sides having embarrassed themselves equally - and people were keeping track as a significant part of the event was gift giving.
If you want to read about what in particular he said there are plenty of articles here and growing. But none of these articles talk about the complete zoo that was this event.
A story written by Reuters seems to be the most reproduced story of the event. The article misleadingly focuses on the point where the Dalai Lama mentions his age and retiring as if that was the majority of what the event was. The line the numerous news articles quote ("Within a few years' time, I will retire completely") was in fact the only reference he made to retiring in a two hour program. In fact, that statement wasn't even part of his speech. I'm also chuckling a bit at the most widely available Reuters article that manages to never even mention Hampshire College but comes narrowly close in the last sentence:
In recent years, Smith College has collaborated with a nearby college to sustain a program of annual academic exchanges with exiled Tibetan scholars
The program started at that other college and expanded through a collaboration to Smith and then to the University of Tasmania. Oh, well we certainly don't have the PR department that Smith does and that line sounds oddly like it could have come straight out of the mouth of someone working at Smith.
Tomorrow, I think I'm going to write an entry over the recent drama about the "birthplace" of the hamburger that has three states across the U.S fuming at one another. If this sounds ridiculous and interesting, it totally is so stay tuned. I think I need to start spicing up this journal a bit.
Smith College presented the Dalai Lama with a generous check and a honorary degree. Hampshire gave him a "college citation" and a blown up picture of an sustainable "ambulance" (a bike with a wheeled chair hooked up to the back) with no explanation or mention of sustainability the gift looked rather laughable and bizarre. President Hexter of Hampshire College promised the "ambulance" would be delivered and emphasized it was designed by Hampshire students. The "ambulance" was met with curled lips and chuckles from a confused and amused audience. Big sister Smith seemed to have completely one-upped us in the gift department until later when a student representative gave him a Smith track coat and a bunch of books about Smith and in the paraphrased words of the student "and [Smith's] tireless dedication to social equality." So Smith decided in a fabulously cocksure and narcissistic flourish that the Dalai Lama would most value a gift basket of propaganda about Smith. Meanwhile the Hampshire student, who was in fact an ethnic Tibetan exchange student, offered him books written by Hampshire alumni on a range of topics all selected for their adherence to Hampshire's philosophy "to know is not enough." The poor girl from Hampshire was so nervous and scared, and in a sign of respect and deep compassion he reached out to her, smiling broadly, and touched her face to comfort her as she nervously stumbled. By the end the gifts were about equal, both sides having embarrassed themselves equally - and people were keeping track as a significant part of the event was gift giving.
If you want to read about what in particular he said there are plenty of articles here and growing. But none of these articles talk about the complete zoo that was this event.
A story written by Reuters seems to be the most reproduced story of the event. The article misleadingly focuses on the point where the Dalai Lama mentions his age and retiring as if that was the majority of what the event was. The line the numerous news articles quote ("Within a few years' time, I will retire completely") was in fact the only reference he made to retiring in a two hour program. In fact, that statement wasn't even part of his speech. I'm also chuckling a bit at the most widely available Reuters article that manages to never even mention Hampshire College but comes narrowly close in the last sentence:
In recent years, Smith College has collaborated with a nearby college to sustain a program of annual academic exchanges with exiled Tibetan scholars
The program started at that other college and expanded through a collaboration to Smith and then to the University of Tasmania. Oh, well we certainly don't have the PR department that Smith does and that line sounds oddly like it could have come straight out of the mouth of someone working at Smith.
Tomorrow, I think I'm going to write an entry over the recent drama about the "birthplace" of the hamburger that has three states across the U.S fuming at one another. If this sounds ridiculous and interesting, it totally is so stay tuned. I think I need to start spicing up this journal a bit.