Didn't connect

My mind is filled with anticipation for a trip down to Washington DC. I'm taking the train to visit my cousin who has a 1 year old, and his twin has a 1 year old, and I'm going to be meeting these fellows for the first time, and I'm very excited. 

I've been living like a monk, and I don't travel much because I'm poor, so I'm excited to travel. I've been to London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, Mexico City, been to Dominican Republic, Ecuador. I've led a bless life of travel. I think travel is really important in terms of feeling with your body how big and different the world is. 

Going from NYC to DC isn't that big a shift but I'm additionally excited because I'm taking the train. I love the train. Such a glorious way to travel. 

When I was younger I didn't worry too much, mostly excitement. I've develop awareness of anxiety. A journey is uncertain and there are inflection points where things can go wrong. I've been lucky that I haven't had many problems traveling. It's always gone smoothly, so my anxiety isn't trauma based. I have been in a car that rolled over in the ditch, but I hardly remember that. My father thought my mother was drifting into the other lane, and yanked the wheel over. Those were the days when seat belts weren't used. My G.I. Joe was all twisted up but luckily nobody was hurt. 

I think about Ajahn Mun who got enlightened on a train ride. I got past 2 hours yesterday and hope to today and the day of the travel, but I don't think I'm quite there yet. In fact there's a funny cartoon about Thanksgiving:

My cousins are quite centered men with good wives, so I'm expecting it to be a lovely family holiday. It's hard to see where the challenges will come from. Someone won't be swiftly empathetic as hoped for, probably. 

Shams missed the informal 6 AM meeting, and rescheduled for 7:30 AM, but wasn't there either. Connecting with someone on the other end of the world is surprisingly easy and I'm really amazed at my improbable friendship with someone in Iran considering how the world is these days. But he wanted meditation support, and I wanted to give it. Never even taught them meditation. 

In articles about Iran, I saw they think it was in Iran that humans mated with Neanderthals (big think). Today's humans have 1-4% Neanderthal genes. This popular article as based on an article from Nature.