Enlightenment

We went to a town called Nara earlier this week. Inside Todai-ji, the largest wooden building in the world (or so they say) is one of the largest Buddhas I've ever seen. And behind that Buddha is a wooden column with a hole in it. Popular legend says that those who can squeeze through the hole will achieve enlightenment.

"I have to try this!" I say. "I'm small!"

"You think you're as small as Japanese schoolchildren?" asks Daniel, ever the skeptic, looking at the long line of excited children waiting to crawl through the hole.

I decide against trying, not because I didn't think I would fit (even the chubby kids were making it with a little tugging) but because I didn't want to wait in a line of screaming kids for an hour.

"Maybe the true enlightenment is realizing you don't need to squeeze through a hole to achieve enlightenment," says Daniel.

Now that's wisdom.