I took the day off of work and joined up with my family for a quick birthday celebration Monday night. In preparation to see His Holiness on Tuesday in Cedar Falls, we went to bed early knowing we still had a 90 minute drive in the morning with the doors opening at 8:15.

The drive went quickly, but as we got closer to the university of Iowa, we noticed a long line of cars and time started ticking by and the cutoff for closing the doors got closer and closer. It seemed everyone arrived right when we did. I opted to go the sneaky route and hopped in the quicker moving right lane. I was able to sneak in further ahead after getting through a yellow light that got us to the turn for the parking much quicker. I let Tiff hop out to get in the quickly growing entry lines and I went to find parking. I somehow lucked out and found a super close spot in the lot right next to the building – not sure how everyone else didn’t figure this out but I was ecstatic!

I eventually find Tiff in line and we start working our way forward. It was fun noticing the variety of people attending – young and old, hippies and conservatives (at least conservatively dressed), all colors and religions (we were guessing). There were a few tv crews there and tiff made clear her opinion of Fox…

The lines moved pretty quickly and we made it through the metal detectors with no problems, even with my camera and tiff’s purse. (this was much better than when we saw His Holiness in Chicago of 07 – that was crazy!) We found our seats and watched as the 1,000s more people filled in the stadium.

Eventually the festivities began and the panel, along with the Dalai Lama, were introduced. He informed us that he was late due to a discussion with a chinese journalist (which it sounds like that was interesting) and giggled as he always does. He then got comfortable on his cream loveseat by taking off his shoes, sitting indian style, and pulling out an Indiana visor from his matching robe (which is maybe why he chose that specific visor in the first place).

Discussions started by each panelists giving a quick introduction and talk on their focus whether it be the university’s activities, religious focus, protection from violence, or thoughts on violence and education in general. After each the Dalai Lama would give his thoughts on the discussion topic which most of the time reverted back to his usual message of compassion, respect, and kindness.

A few things i specifically remember were his emphasis on de-emphasizing specific religions but instead focusing on the more basic need of moral ethics in both education and in life. He said do not disrespect religion but rather respect all religions. He said “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” Later he continued with “Respect a citizen, respect entire member of society” and said to ignore money, gender, race etc we are “one human family.”

In regards to education he said we have “education for brain” but need “education for heart”. That was one of my favorite quotes of the day and I think that is something that everyone can take away. As always he made jokes, though I think sometimes just to himself and giggled and laughed throughout. His laugh always makes me smile as does his openness to everyone. We left with light hearts.

And lighter wallets… haha! Outside were vendors of various tibetan goods. A few postcards, bumber stickers, scarves and figures called to us. Our stomachs argued and eventually won out – so we left to get a quick lunch.

As part of the festivities a sand mandala was created and put on display during the visit. A sand mandala is a temporary piece of art created out of tiny granules of colored sand intricately laid out to create complex designs typically on a table or flat surface. Tibetan monks train for a long time to design these and 3 Tibetan scholars in the US came together to create this one at UNI. Traditionally these are destroyed shortly after completion as will this one on the 19th.

We were amazed at the design and wandered around it multiple times to catch the small details… the pink people, a tiger, a large lotus, mountains, trees… just awe inspiring. Outside stood a Tibetan tent of some sort so we hopped inside. Tiff showed off her yoga skills while i took a nice break and enjoyed the breeze.

It was a great day to be out and about and we headed home with thoughts on the world, religion, and peace in our minds.

We end up finding 2 caches – 1 right next to the lagoon that required some tricksy maneuvering to not be seen, and another one was right in the middle town disguised as a sprinkler head (with me nonchalantly pointing it out). With the bats heading out for their afternoon snack we headed to the mall where i couldn’t make up my mind and chose to just stick it out with my ultra wide lens… we ended the night with a food court selection for dinner.

you gotta love photoshop when it really allows kids to dream