OPINION Traveling Rays of Sunshine

Posted: 25 Apr 2010 | 1:23 pm

I often wonder what is would be like to be born blind. To have never seen the light of day, the sun, moon, stars or the face of a human or even yourself in the mirror. But the cold hard truth is I have seen it all and it's etched firmly on my mindscape as sure as the days are long.

Sitting on a sunny Sunday afternoon in my office, seeing the occasional cloud pass by and the rays of sunshine come out after, first just a few and then all coming, until the sunburst hits the street like a flaming explosion of color. It's hard to reconcile the images from Bangkok and those of real life in Phuket is peaceful and in fact ordinary.

I was in Bangkok this past week and walked through the red shirt encampment in Ratchaprasong. Past the towering empty malls of Paragon and Central World and barricaded luxury hotels. Past the Silom blockade to Sale Daeng, where the army and police hold court and wait. It was surrealistic, tense yet lively and one could not help but be touched by the display of humanity on both sides of what is now called 'the great divide.'

Both in the nation's capital and here on the island, the murmurs are becoming louder, expats talking about moving on, going to somewhere safer, better, or not so crazy. I'd like to know where this is, as for most of the globe today the event be they exploding volcano's, crashing planes, imploding economies or religious strife cover the earth like a blanket that's shaken out on a regular basis.

It's always something.

As for me, my bags aren't packed. I'm invested in Thailand, and in Phuket. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially with family and friends I have no intention of leaving.

There are indeed storm clouds, and the weather warning calls for turbulent weather ahead. But at the end of the day, I have great hope that peace and prosperity will return here to this country and to Bangkok. Not being blind I can't imagine a world with no light or even those rays of sunshine.

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