Today I’m posting the contents of an email that I received yesterday from my good friend Steve. He’s living in Chiang Mai, Thailand an encountered another expat who was recently hit with a devastating financial loss.

It’s a true personal story. With a message. Or several messages.

Here’s the story:

Yesterday I was eating banana heart salad at Pun Pun restaurant (possibly the apex of Thai vegetarian cooking) when Tom came by.  Tom often comes to our Thursday meditation group. He is a New Yorker who comes to Thailand to escape the cold — Chiang Mai is the new Florida!

Tom is about 55, runs around in  Hawaiian shirts, shorts and thongs and disappears to Koh Samui at regular intervals  and clearly is enjoying his life of leisure.

But here he was in a ironed long sleeve white shirt (not a good idea for mid-day Chiang Mai), long pants and uncomfortable leather shoes.

“Are you a missionary or off to a job interview?”  I joked.

He sat down with us and asked me to introduce him to the dean of the school where I teach English. I took him over to our dinky little office to meet with the head faculty, the wonderful Ajarn Tong.

Tom handed Tong his resume.

Ajarn Tong said that he was sorry but they weren’t hiring people with degrees in Business.

Tom told us that he  had retired about ten years ago.  Made a lot of money on Wall Street and real estate.   But, now he had to find a job.

Bernie Madoff.

Yes. Tom was completely, totally wiped out. He had leveraged his home in New York and that was gone.  He was totally broke.

But, despite what sounds like a truly depressing tale, Tom seemed quite upbeat.  He had just got back from a ten day retreat at Wat Chomthong (a meditation temple about an hour from Chiang Mai).

Tom said his first retirement was over and now he had to get back to work to get ready for his second retirement.

He kept commenting on the Buddhist concept that all is change and how he truly, deeply understood this.

Then Tom excused himself.  Popped into the bathroom.  And came out a few minutes later in Hawaiian shirt, shorts and thongs.  His clothes on a hanger.

He asked Ajarn Tong if he could leave the clothes there for a while.

“Yes. No one will steal them. They are too big,” Ajarn Tong said.

Tom and I walked back to Pun Pun restaurant where I treated him to a pineapple, ginger, honey and cinnamon shake.

Tom said that if he didn’t find work in the next month he was going to ordain as a monk.

Why not?

What’s the message for you in this story?

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