Happy Birthday, India!
Today is the 60th day of India’s Independence. I know. It’s a bit weird to note the birthday of a country that’s not my birthplace, while completely omitting any notice of the birthday of the country that is, but it’s my editorial choice and I’m sticking to it.
There’s still a bunch of blog posts in the pipeline–and I set all of them aside to make this one instead.
Part of the reason just had to do with the state of the planet today. Unless you’ve been camped out on a remote island somewhere, you probably already know about the security crisis that’s been going on for the last few days. In the midst of the nationwide celebrations, there is also hieghtened security checks–Delhi today is in the middle of a flag-bedecked standstill, mainly due to traffic restrictions, while security forces keep an eye out for terrorists aiming to disrupt the day’s activities.
For those of you who are astrologically minded, India is still in the midst of it’s second Saturn return. The Saturn return is the big “butt-kicking” stage of life that happens every 28-30 years. It’s a period of inner reflection and crisis; anything that doesn’t work in life really gets painful to do, until it’s fixed. And so with India. You can see it in the press: there are so many articles that express gratitude for independence, followed by a pointed analysis of stuff still broken in India’s infrastructure. Women’s rights, the economy, the educational system, caste discrimination…the list grows with each new editorial.
As a civilization, though, India has been around for some 5,000 years. And, as Lena often reminds me, India has been operating on the verge of collapse for all of that time–it just seems to be the country’s natural state. So I have few worries about the current crisis-ridden birthday.
Today my prayer, as always, will involve making sure everyone gets a piece of cake. The salvation of all sentient beings, doncha know….
