Four Pairs of Sandals as an Act of Faith

Jeffrey Stanley’s latest essay is in the Washington Post. A born again experience? In a mosque? With Allah? Why not.

May 15, 2013

On Faith

Four Pairs of Sandals as an Act of Faith

Walking a mile in another man’s shoes leads to kismet

by Jeffrey Stanley

Three years ago I got married to my wife in a traditional Hindu Bengali ceremony in Kolkata and spent three weeks touring the country. I bought a pair of sandals there which I wore throughout my trip and back home here in the States. This December my wife, our young son and I went back to India for a month to visit relatives. I brought my well-worn “India sandals” with me.  A week into the visit they broke irreparably and I tossed them. The location of their demise seemed appropriate — from India they had come and to India they would return. The next day while we were out sightseeing we stumbled upon a tiny shoe store, one of a zillion in Kolkata, where I found the perfect pair of replacement sandals. They were simple but unique enough that they suited me as a souvenir.

Nakhoda Masjid. Kolkata, West Bengal, India. January, 2013.

A few days later I struck out on my own for a sightseeing visit Nakhoda Masjid, the largest mosque in Kolkata, built in 1926. A billboard told me with no intended irony that this was Road Safety Week in India. Still the taxis, auto-rickshaws and pedestrians were up to their usual danse macabre.

After a requisite insane cab ride and a short walk down a crowded, narrow street full of screaming sidewalk merchants selling Muslim prayer rugs and other Islam-themed souvenirs I found the mosque. It was sparsely populated at that late morning hour. The Continue reading “Four Pairs of Sandals as an Act of Faith”

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When you run 10 miles carrying Lord Jagannath on your chest, you run it 6 minutes faster than you did last year. Just giving credit where credit is due. I am my own juggernaut.

jeff broad street run 2013b
How’s that for a juggernaut?

When you run 10 miles carrying Lord Jagannath on your chest, you run it 6 minutes faster than you did last year.  Just giving credit where credit is due.

Yiga Choeling Buddhist Monastery

Also called Ghum or Ghoom Monastery in the town of Ghum just outside of Darjeeling in northern India. January 2013.

[10/31/13 – Supernatural Skeptics Don’t Know What They’re Missing.  “I try contacting the spirit world before live audiences to keep an element of hope simmering on the back burner of my mind.” – read Jeffrey Stanley’s latest in the Washington Post]

 

Built in 1850.  Also called Ghum or Ghoom Monastery in the town of Ghum just outside of Darjeeling in northern India.   Dig the wrathful deities.  Photos taken January 2013.

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