The other "big" event on Sunday was the football.  And as we drove into Glasgow at about 6.30pm a car passed us with four people shouting and laughing and leaning out of the windows waving their arms about.  Other cars too had occupants who were obviously celebrating something - tooting horns, big smiles and thumbs up signs. We knew it could only be something to do with football - I don't think there's anything else that can produce such animation in the majority of the Scottish population.  But we didn't know who was celebrating what.  The car's occuppants were not wearing any team colours.  When we drove into the city centre there were a few groups of youths in Celtic colours.  They had obviously had a few and seemed to be laughing and joking. So we assumed that Celtic had won something.  It was not untill later that we discovered that Celtic, by losing in the last 2 minutes to Mighty Motherwell, had lost the league cup to arch rivals Rangers.

So we arrived at the Piping Centre to the sound of the pipes - a Piper in full regalia playing outside the doors.  Whether to welcome Dadi or not we don't know - but it was all rather splendid.  And on the pavement in front of the piper were a couple of men dancing drunkenly, with waving arms and a staggering "pas de bas" encouraging the piper to even greater efforts.  You have to imagine the scene as the piper continued in the best pipping tradition to ignore the antics under his nose whilst the two men reeled (literally) through their dance repertoire (one step forwards two steps back - you know the one).

It could easily have been confrontational but somehow it seemed all to be taken in good part - an acceptance by those people attending the talk and by the piper, that these guys were just having a celebration and enjoying themselves in their own way - while we entered the building to listen to Dadi Janki to enjoy ourselves in a different way.  There seemed to be a tolerance and understanding on all sides.  Such different ways of being, and such different ways of expressing our humanness.  It could only happen in Glasgow.  I'm sure there's a lesson there.  Isn't there?

Much Love

Stan