Dunhuang After a Fashion

 Here's another picture that has wafted in from the past. This is from my friend Kerry, who wasn't on this part of the China trip (that is, the far west) which means that I sent it to her fourteen years ago and now she's returned the favor. Here I am with the other professors on the Silk Road/Journey to the West faculty trip, in this case at Dunhuang. At the time I don't think I understand how much I was hanging by a thread emotionally (and obviously physically). In between leaving one woman and being dumped by another, I found myself being robbed of my past and my future. Obviously, I ended up in a very nice spot - and had many adventures along the way - but I think I was simply too destroyed to enjoy, appreciate, and learn from an amazing opportunity. Since that time I've taught several classes relating to Journey to the West and the Silk Road, but the classes would have been much richer if I had not been wavering so close to the edge then.

I remember not being as impressed by Dunhuang as I should have been, no doubt partially because I was still in my love affair with India - mainly I was thinking that I had simply seen more amazing places in India and thus I was mindlessly dismissive of the experience.