Swami, How I love ya [was Re: a signature question OR:
Baader, Cecilia (cbaader@casecorp.com)
Thu, 21 Oct 1999 01:24:21 -0500
"That's the plaque that commemorates the swami-swam," she tinkled at us,
pointing out a small tarnished plaque on the wall of the museum.
"Apparently, he's very famous. He came to the museum in 1893, gave a
speech, and they put up the plaque because people kept asking where he
stood."
I crept closer to the plaque and read the name inscribed upon it. "Yes,
Doris, he's pretty famous," I remarked.
"Oh," she looked at me, surprised. "So you've heard of him? I always
point this out to everyone, since volunteers at the museum need to know
where to direct people. Some people come to the Art Institute simply to
stand in the spot where he stood."
I nodded, pausing a few more moments in front of the plaque while Doris led
the rest of the new volunteers into the gallery containing African Art. And
when I ran into the homeless man selling copies of _Streetwise_ while
standing under the sign denoting the section in front of Michigan Avenue
immediately in front of the museum as Honorary Swami Vivekananda Way, I
clapped for his song and bought a copy of his paper.
So no, the streets of Chicago do not yield chance meetings with ancient
swami, but you can stand in the spot where he once stood and perhaps bump
into his ghost. Between finding torn books in DeKalb and plaques in museums
on Michigan Avenue, we may be small frogs in great big wells, but every so
often we chance to see the sea.
Regards,
Cecilia.
> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 13:28:55 -0700
> From: citycabn <citycabn@gateway.net>
> To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> Subject: Re: a signature question OR: "The Little Clues"
> Walking west, through the sister-park of Golden Gate Park,
> headed toward the ocean's shore (where I often walk with my better half of
> twenty years), I thought of the heartwarming posts about where to find The
Way
> of the Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way.
>
> As for myself: Of all places, it was in Hollywood, CA, c. 1971, at the
> Vedanta Bookshop adjacent to The Temple. As fate would have it, while
> browsing and amassing a stack of books much larger than my
wallet--including
> a paperback volume of the Pilgrim books--, the ancient swami walked
through
> the shop. (He was, among others, Christopher Isherwood's swami, and
> Isherwood wrote a book about him titled, I think, My Guru.) What a treat
to
> see him (granted, not Swami Vivekananda on the busy streets of Calcutta as
> all you Hapworth readers know--but if I am not mistaken, Swami V. at the
> end of his life did initiate the old man I saw before me as a very young
> boy) and offer a namaste in his direction.
>
> Frederick just peered over my shoulder and demanded, since the computer is
> now off limits to him, that I add:
>
> He, Frederick, once almost found the Pilgrim books in their *pea-green*
> editions. They were, of all places, in DeKalb, Illinois. As he was
> standing at a bin of books, a woman next to him took them into her hands
> just as the titles caught his eye.
>
> regards to all,
> Bruce