I was at this Buddhist temple, I frequent, the other day. …I was there, as people prepare for the birthday of the Buddha (this year) on May 15.
 
As the birthday of the Buddha is approaching, there tends to be various gatherings and meditations and the like. At the temple, there was this organized precession of the True Believers walking the grounds and heading towards the temple.
 
Let me sidetrack here for a moment… First of all, how do they know the birthday of the Buddha? He is believed to have lived approximately five hundred years before Christ. But, the exact time frame has never been historically absolutely established. I guess how could it be? Yet, they (the True Believers) celebrate his birthday on a specific day each year. 
 
All this is not so different than the birthday of Jesus, I suppose. But, that day is more established. And, in fact, much of the calendars of the world are based upon it. Anyway…
 
More commonly, the Buddha’s birthday is celebrated in April. But, this year, 2024, due to the whole lunar thing, based around the Vaisakha calendar and all, it will be celebrated in May.
 
Back to the story… I was at the temple and there was this long precession of True Believers. The men walked in one row, the women in another. They were all cloaked in black robes. Most wore face masks, due to the lingering worry of the COVID-19 pandemic and all. A few had them pulled down and others, I guess, just refused to wear the mask at all as they had none covering their face.
 
The thing that caught my eye, as the very long line of the woman’s group passed me by, was one woman wore these very dirty white tennis shoes. This caused me to focus on the shoes. In fact, the thought came to me to film the long line of passing shoes, to create some sort of Zen Film, but filming at the temple is forboden, and, I guess, that would have been a bit disrespectful in any case.
 
As the shoes walked by, I could not help but study the difference it what each person wore. Most were tennis shoe style shoes. There were a few hard/dress style shoes. And, even a couple of sandals. What this truly illustrated to me is how each of the woman were so different. They were all there. They were all (obviously) True Believers. They all held firm to a common cause. Yet, the shoes they wore detailed who and what they truly were, how they focused their life, and the level of affluence they did or did not possessed.
 
I have long believed (and stated), “You can know a man by the shoes he wears.” And, you can. People with money or the fake it till you make it people always wear expensive shoes. Most people, whether they have money or not, want their shoes to look nice. But then, there are those, like the first women I took notice of, wearing the most trashed shoes and just do not care. Why? Who know??? But, the shoes a person wears truly describes who they are, how they think, and what they are attempting to portray (or not).
 
So, who are you? What shoes do you wear? And, why do you wear them? What shoes is the person next to you wearing and why?  If you never think about this, maybe you should.
 
Happy B’Day Buddha!