I didn’t find a lot of buddhism in Ireland. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s not there, and it didn’t stop me from looking for interdependence. And any trip to another country always highlights that for me–with halogen highbeams, actually.
My brother and his wife and my husband and I spent a week in Eire, in a little vacation cottage near Shannon, in Bunratty. We fled NYC the day after Christmas and stayed thru New Year’s, returning safely after the sales and year-end retrospectives were over. We missed Dick Clark. We missed “the ball drop” in Times Square. We missed all the countdowns, the top 10 videos of 2007, the top 100 celebrities. . . .
I missed none of it, frankly. We may not have been there for any of that, but I had no longing to be there.
I was too fascinated by Irish cable tv. Okay, yes, we saw a lot of scenery and history and Galway and Dublin. But I’ve been there twice before, and it was time to relax in the little cottage, with its tiny
dishwasher (so energy-efficient!) and tiny dual function washer-dryer. . . And 24-hour British bhangra channel. And bizarre programs like Victoria’s world, in which a rather apologetic British woman named Victoria travels to places  named “Victoria” all over the world — remnants of the Empire of  course–and tries to figure out if the British did any good there at  all.
Thought-provoking to watch that show in Ireland, which for so long, and with such unwillingness, was part of the British Empire. Thought-provoking to watch that show the week Benazir Bhutto was assassinated,  amid an atmosphere of division and suspicion–part of the Indian  subcontinent’s legacy as a former Imperial posession?
Empire and colony: contemplating that immensely powerful and world- shaping relationship, i found myself thinking of themes in One City and in buddhism, of how humans can make others so very “other”; the  better to dominate, objectify, and rule. To justify behavior that  creates lasting samsaric cycles of suffering. And to cause entirely unforeseen repercussions–not all of which lead entirely to suffering.
Victoria of the BBC pointed out the legacy of trains, the English language, and more positive aspects of England’s empire. I thought of  Gandhi. I thought of the bhangra channel, where Indian pop, American hip-hop,  and the musics of a couple other former colonies mix and mingle and  become something completely new. Interdependence indeed, as it ever was.
And I thought of the my absence from the New Year celebrations and  retrospectives that I was so NOT missing.
And I was glad for some independence from our interdependent world  culture, once in a while, after all.