At a loss for an answer... for the first time?

This Evening I went to a rugby practice... my first in about a year and a half!!! Last summer I didn't play, except for a couple of pick-up games when I was back in Winnipeg visiting. It was great to see some familiar faces, but most of all it was great to move in a semi-athletic fashion. I am feeling so sluggish these days, but have not gathered up the motivation to get myself out of the house to go for a run. So a group practice is just what I needed- someone else to tell me what to do and when. I'm hoping this will lead me to take myself out for a run tomorrow, but we'll see. As I'm typing, I can feel a certain soreness in the back of my throat, and am mildly concerned that it will be raging by morning. Imagine... there are germs in Canada too!!! Of course I know this, but it seems wonderous that germs can exist in what I now realize to be such an incredibly clean country.

Anyway, back to why I decided to write this posting: Tonight, as I was driving back from practice with my two rugby friends (the junior women's provincial rugby coaches) and their adorable kids, one of them asked me what I learned from the Indians. To be honest, I was at a bit of a loss for an immediate answer. I loved India, usually even when I hated it. And having travelled in India has taught me to appreciate my good fortune at having been born and raised in a country with such vast spaces, low population density, social services and cleanliness. But trying to think of useful lessons to be learned from the indians, embarrassingly, was an immediate challenge. I've been thinking about it for the last hour. One thing that could be learned is to find happiness in your life, no matter how challenging circumstances may appear. Driving through the slums in Mumbai, I saw incredibly poor people washing themselves in the gutter and cooking their meals in the street because there was no room to do so in their shack (not to mention it would be too hot). But in those streets covered in a medley of dirt, crap and garbage, I also saw smiling and joking faces; families enjoying one another's company; interested faces engrossed in the satellite t.v. program that crowds

gathered together to watch inside of the lean-to shack. So I suppose realizing that happiness doesn't require new parasuco or sevens jeans or the right stock option is a pretty good thing to learn from the indians.

Still, I'm not sure that this is the kind of answer my friend was looking for. He suggested as an example that something to take away from much of Europe is to take life a bit easier, as for example, by enjoying a two hour lunch break, or having a shorter work week. So if any one reading this has travelled to India, I'd be pleased if you would post your thoughts on good lessons to be taken away from India and/or Indian people. Thanks.