Somehow I didn't know the Dalai Lama was appearing in Louisville, KY until last Tuesday. Since I live just 50 miles or so away I decided to go and took my teenage son as well. I figured this was a once in a lifetime chance to see one of the most famous people on Earth.

I should mention that back when I was a teenager I read Heinrich Harrer's book Seven Years in Tibet, mostly because I was enamored with mountaineering and adventure, not necessarily Buddhism. Most of my life l have thought of the Dalai Lama as that young kid living in a remote palace, soaking up knowledge of the outside world from this Austrian mountaineer.

Yesterday's public lecture (about 16,000 people there, like a rock concert) reminded me that if you go back far enough, the Dalai Lama's identity is that of the Boddhisatva of Compassion. The whole talk was about compassion. I think it was real good for my son, definitely gonna remind him every time he has a spat with his sister.

There's a lot that can be said about him, the main thing I would say is that he (eventually) embraced democracy. At least in public, he has consistently downplayed and downgraded the Tibetans tendency to deify him.

Curt Welling