Today is May Day, the 1st of May, and a holiday for workers in many pas of the world. It is also the anniversary of a Buddhist meeting many of the employees of Hatch's Bookstore in University Hills Shopping Mall attended back in the early 1980s. Why is this so memorable? Because it was at the invitation of Robin, my friend and a Hatch's Bookstore employee at the time (seen along with her daughter Caitie in the much more recent photograph), and took place at the Soka Gakki International Buddhist Center, then located in a church basement in Lakewood, Colorado. Robin, my friend Stuart, my sister Susan, my then wife Lisa, and a few others - all Hatch's Bookstore employees - attended this meeting. We sat in what seemed like 100 degree temperatures in front of a television, watching some sort of Buddhist pageant in a stadium in Japan. The announcer would speak for about 10 minutes in Japanese, and then a 10 word English translation would follow. Really? That was all the announcer actually said? I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now. What did they leave out? In any case, this went on for what seemed like three hours, not that I'm complaining. Kind of like watching the Ice Capades, but at least we didn't have to pay for the ticket.
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