The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change by Adam Braun Read Free Book Online

broken record. “I want to say my prayers and meditations in one of the places that I believe is closest to G-d. I might notbe a Hindu, but any place that others pray to so fervently, in my mind, is sacred.”
    He put his hand on my shoulder. “This is very good. But don’t just jump in. . . . I will show you where to enter after the tour.”
    My heart leapt. I had an ally.
    During the sunrise tour we saw people of all ages bathing in the river. One man did a floating meditation, another taught his children the morning rituals.
    When we arrived back on the shore, as the group took pictures of the surrounding buildings, Vanay nodded toward me and pointed at a few steps that led into the water. I discreetly walked to the side and stripped down to my shorts. I walked down to the bank and into the river. I dunked my whole body, and without thinking about it, I submerged my head and opened my mouth, letting the water rush in the way I usually do in a bathtub or pool. I rose to the top and spit it out without even thinking about the mistake I may have made taking in the world’s holiest—and biologically dirtiest—water. No turning back now.
    Once I was shoulder deep in the water, I closed my eyes and said my prayers. As I emerged from the water ten minutes later, an elderly shaman with a saffron robe and orange turban filled with a cascade of white hair called out to me, “Why go in the Ganga?”
    I told him why and he took my hand in his. He pulled out a ball of bright red and yellow string and looped the string twice around my wrist. He closed his eyes and recited a prayer of protection and goodwill, then told me this was a holy string of Varanasi.
    A small crowd of Indian boys gathered around us. We walked together for a few blocks, but before they departed, they asked me for some money to help them. Instead, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a few pencils. I gave one to each of the boys. The change in them was immediate. They began drawing on piecesof paper a shop owner gave them and practiced their letters for others to see. They had a new sense of freedom, a new independence. I was moved by how such a small act could open up a sense of possibility, wonder, and connection in those who had so little. Ideas began to percolate in my mind, but I forced myself not to get too excited. No matter how hard I tried, though, I couldn’t get the image of that boy holding that pencil out of my head.

Mantra 5

DO THE SMALL THINGS THAT MAKE OTHERS FEEL BIG
    A fter India we traveled the open plains of the Kenyan Masai Mara, spent time in the townships of South Africa, and explored the overgrown favelas of Brazil. Rather than pursuing guided tours at historic sites, I developed a habit of befriending locals who were my age and asking if I could spend time in their home villages. This simple request took me far off the beaten path and enabled me to gain an inside glimpse into how rural communities functioned. I became obsessed with learning how other people lived and was consumed by a newfound passion to help. By the time Semester at Sea came to a close, we had circled the globe and I felt like a man on fire.
    When we arrived at the docks in Ft. Lauderdale where our families awaited us, I was immediately struck by how much bigger Americans were than the people I’d met abroad. It was so rare to see an overweight person in the developing world, yet morethan half of the people waving from the Floridian shores seemed enormous. As Marcel Proust wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Although I had been worried about experiencing culture shock in foreign countries throughout the trip, the greatest culture shock was about to occur back home.
    Ma was eager to take me to her golf club in Boca Lago and fill me with heaping plates of brisket, meatballs, gefilte fish, sushi, and chicken-noodle soup—delicacies after months on the ship eating stale rolls and soggy salad.