Day 48 - Road to the Oracle
Trip Start
May 18, 2008
1
49
63
Trip End
Jul 17, 2008
Sacramento, California
Saturday, July 5, 2008
It's Independence Day! I took Lisa and her mother up on the opportunity to go walk with them in the morning. So I drove from San Jose to Saratoga, a 25 minute drive, to their place again. We did morning gongyo together and drove out to Los Gatos to walk in a local park pathway. Along the way we talked about linguistics and how interesting it can be, and what my family was like, the culture in Los Gatos, the movie Mongol. We walked for about 45 minutes and drove back to their house. I said my goodbyes with Lisa and her mom and shared my appreciation for their hospitality.
Back at the Freudenberger house we were getting ready to drive to Fairfield, CA where Mark and his wife Chelsea live in their new home with their two kids. I was to continue driving up to Sacramento, CA after my visit there. Peter came along with me and Tanya drove up in the Element with Sarah. On the way up I had a chance to share my story of pole vaulting in college and how it was an experience in which I feel I transformed my life. He shared with me his stories of how playing with the band was that type of experience for him.
When we got to Fairfield, I saw an old friend that I hadn't seen since I was about five years old. Peter's older brother Mark didn't look any different that he did 18 years ago. I could recognized him on the streets. He's doing pretty well for himself in a beautiful new home and working from home as a director of sales for a wine company. He has a beautiful wife, Chelsea and their two kids Cailyn and Grace. I decided they were too cute to only stick around for a few minutes and leave, so I stuck around. And because Mark was planning on cooking up some food. We took the kids to the playground around the corner from the beautiful house. Pete and I got a chance to throw around a baseball for a bit, something I haven't done in ages. Then we joined the kids in the playground. Man, playgrounds sure have changed since I was a kid.
During the dinner, we shared stories of old. We were digging them up from before my memory banks started collecting things. I was too young to remember all of it. But we also shared more recent memories and talked about the Freudenberger family. Rick called from his little vacation to say hi and wish me safe travels. After a great dinner with the family, I got a chance to play with the kids a little longer before I had to started making my way up to Sacramento to meet Diana. I had to say my goodbyes to the Freudenbergers there and thanked them for everything they allowed to experience in San Jose and in the valley. It was something special to create new memories, ones that I would most likely remember from this point forward. Thank you with all my life.
The drive only took about an hour up to Sacramento and in no time I met Diana. My connection with Diana is through Daniel Perez, an SGI friend from Washington, DC. Diana played acting mother while he went to UC Davis and he shared with me that others feel the same way. I told him that I have to meet this woman. As soon as we met, we were chanting together and she introduced me to her intense personality and we hit it off. I almost had to take a step back with her in-your-face personality but I found it so refreshing to be able to be with her and could feel the comfortable environment she created when interacting with her. Daniel even referred to her as the "Oracle" of Sacramento (Matrix reference). I can see why. I learned that the youth of the SGI in Sacramento started to stand up and take responsibility of the organization in this area in her apartment. She took care of them and made it clear to them that she would always be there to support them in any endeavor they took on, any. A truly remarkable woman who's overcome illness, needing a liver transplant and really changing her karma inthe process. In otherwards, she's experienced the life changing effects of challenging a life and death situation through transforming a life of suffering into a life of joy. The great part, she's still intense with the attitude of no BS. We talked well into the night about how special this Buddhist practice is in her life. She also invited me to stay the rest of the weekend so that I could attend some SGI meetings and meet some other youth while I was here in Sac-town. Yes.
Miles driven today: 164.4mi
Daniel
