Meghalaya: Living Bridge

Living Bridge, Meghalaya, India - http://www.snotr.com/video/7331/The_Living_Bridge  

For better optical resolution of this video - albeit in truncated form - please see http://www.flixxy.com/living-bridge.htm

Meghalaya's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghalaya

How to grow your own bridge: Villagers create 'living' crossings by training roots across a river: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035520/Meghalaya-villagers-create-living-bridges-training-roots-river.html

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The patience of the Meghalayans in "Living Bridge" reminds me of an experience I had while working in Nicaragua in 1989. 

It was my custom then to pick up hitch-hikers. 

One afternoon, on the outskirts of Leon (returning to Managua where I lived), I gave a lift to a peasant man.

To make conversation, I asked what he thought of The Contra War: in particular if he thought it would come to an end. 

Without a moment's hesitation, the man replied with an emphatic "Yes!"

When I asked how long he thought it would take, the peasant grew thoughtful.

After long pondering - perhaps a minute clock time - he answered, "Unos quinientos años." ("About 500 years.")

We Americans want everything. 

Preferably, we want it yesterday.

Mexican friend Lino Nuñez Huerta once observed: "The trouble with you gringos is that you don't know how to suffer."

Notably, "patience" derives from the Latin "patire" meaning "to suffer." http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patire

If the Buddha's First Noble Truth is correctly informed, we Americans are in trouble - http://www.buddhanet.net/ans16.htm