Where Am I Giving: A Global Adventure Exploring How to Use Your Gifts and Talents to Make a Difference

10The Gift of Tasting Ice Cream (Myanmar, 2017): A former monk on giving / Solitude / Thoreau's three chairs

A FEW DAYS BEFORE MY MEDITATION EXPERIMENT, I went to an art gallery to talk to a man with an interesting insight on Buddhism's impact on the culture of giving in Myanmar.

I walked up the stairs, drenched in sweat, thus retaining my title as Myanmar's sweatiest man.

The gallery had an exhibit entitled “Give Peace a Chance,” and the art was informed by the lyrics of John Lennon. Lennon's “… and no religion too” seemed fitting, considering the man I was seeing. Pyay Way was a former monk (see Figure 10.1). The exhibit featured several canvases, including one with a large grenade and a white dove. In one corner a blindfolded baby doll sat in front of a pile of amputated and headless action figures.

Figure 10.1 Pyay Way, a former monk, standing in his art gallery.

Pyay Way was up another flight of stairs above the exhibit, showing paintings to an indecisive husband and wife from England. There were so many paintings from which to choose. Some were on wood frames stacked against the wall 60 paintings deep, allowing only for a narrow walkway. Others were rolled up and stashed on shelves.

The couple wanted a painting to hang over their sofa. Pyay Way swished through pictures on his iPad. When he found one that interested them, he somehow would find the corresponding canvas. ...