Day 3. Portland.

Day 3.
We woke to find the dog hadn’t consumed us & mini James was playing host. He brought us breakfast in bed & put on a movie for us to watch. All this before he even hits 10 years old. He left us feeling inspired & hopeful for the future of the next generation.

We left a note as everyone was still sleeping & headed out on our pilgrimage, hoping we were heading in the right direction. We found the entrance to the freeway to Oregon & put up our sign, wondering if we were creating sign clutter pollution or encroaching on territorial rights of the homeless guy over the road, his sign asking for money. We weren’t there 10 minutes when a young Somalian man came by & told us with a raised eyebrow, that there was a bus for $1.70 just up the road. Perfect. So we followed him to the bus stop. A policeman pulled over, having radioed for back-up because he’d spotted two men at the bus stop in bath robes. Paul allayed all his fears & handed him a business card. We hope to see him in the monastery.



Abshier told us he felt bad just being near us. It turned out it wasn’t because we had crap on our face that he didn’t know how to point out, but that Ahshier wasn’t living the life he knew he could & wanted help to step into what he knew he was called to do. He paid for our bus fare & talked with Paul the entire way to the train station. I can only assume the prayer & talk was helpful, as he gave us $20 cash before hugging us farewell.
We arrived in town on the free Portland train & almost instantly met Clayton, a well presented young man, who told us he didn’t have a home, but DID have… a pet white rat he’d rescued from the snake store. Paul invested some of Ahshier’s money into this compassionate rodent saver’s life & he became our tour guide, taking us on the next train to the centre of town, named by the street kids ‘The Living Room’. Here we met some more young people without a secure place to call home, but with more jokes than Robin Williams. Reeper & Ace entertained us & then again allayed our fears of the integrity of the future generations. They told us they loved prunes, but after giving them a packet & them heading off to the shelter, they returned to bless us with the very same prunes, telling us they got food & felt bad for taking ours. That we needed it more than they did & should take it with us on our trip. Then Ace prayed with us & headed back to his shelter.




We wandered around the living room, talking to random people. Oregon has bumper stickers which state, “Keep the weirdness in Oregon.” Differences seem to be celebrated. We met one group of young people who could fit this category, with capped fangs, sun glasses at night & black smeared under their eyes & claims of fame. They approached us wanting to know what our robes were made of. (I told them hemp, which was from the same family as marijuana.) “Hey, check these guys out! Their robes are made of marijuana nearly!” They allowed us to get photos with their celebrity status, affectionately kissed one another, hugged us & went on their way.

We also met ‘The Queen Lesbian of Portland’ & her friend Donte, who claimed to be “The Face of Portland”. They welcomed us to their living room. Donte regaled us with philosophies & stories & QL Ace told me of the history of the square, it’s people & her own spiritual journey. We spent a lot of time with Ace & Donte & before we knew it, all the food stores were closed & the calendar had rolled over another number.
We went in search of food, but found none. We did find a sword bearing ninja though. We’ll put up his train station demonstration for you to enjoy at your leisure.
Both of us decided that it wouldn’t be right to be privy to a weapon of death without blessing it with holy water, so the next person to get cut would at least have a sacred wound & not die just at the mortal blade of man.
We knew there was no way we would get to Seattle at this hour & James had told us he was working at a rave tonight & would put us on the guest list. So we decided to cash in on his generous offer.
We were introduced to the prettiest girls in the bar – though of course, neither of us noticed the exterior appearances - & then were escorted by security to the VIP room. Here we meet Dee, a solo father of 3 successful young men, full of years & profound truth. We spent more time with him than dancing, but learned & gleaned a load for ourselves & our souls danced as much as if we’d been out on the floor. We did make it out to dance for the last few songs & were amazed at the respect people gave a couple of monks.

At 6am, after receiving royal treatment from the security crew at K9 & talking to a bunch of wide eyed, grinding jawed, interesting people, we needed sleep. A monks sleep is of vital importance, just ask my mother.
We found a cardboard recycle dumpster which looked like it would serve our purposes, but James would have nothing of it. After a little bargaining, we met a deal of setting up tent in his yard. When we got there, he ushered us to his trampoline & that’s where we slept.

Regards,

Tim :)