148) Places of Worship

Today we went on a 9 mile hike into the Jiuzaighou valley - think the Yosemite of China. The area is home to Tibetan villagers who still live within the park. At several points we came across areas of forest strung with multicolored prayer flags. Strings of the gauzy, rectangular pieces of material stamped with scripture and images zig zag through the trees at eye level, creating this fantastic rainbow display. The newer flags are brightly hued in primary colors, while the old ones have faded to pastel shades with time. (I wish, wish, wish that I could post some of the pictures I took today - will have to wait until I get back)

Religion has never been a part of my life, but there's no denying the sacredness of places of worship. Churches, mosques, synagogues, forests filled with prayer flags - they all evoke a certain specialness when you're inside them. Another example: in Barcelona, I visited the church of Santa Maria del Mar, and burst into tears when the youth choir starting singing. Something about the combination of the sunlight streaming into the grandiose gothic cathedral, the soaring ceiling and the voices set me off (again, a visual would help). Even if a particular religion doesn't appeal to you, the weight that others place on their place of worship can be felt. A sort of osmosis of holiness.

P.S. - Here's the answer to the prisoner riddle, for those of you who're following along. When prisoner B doesn't hear prisoner C speak up, he knows that he can't have the same color cap as prisoner A. If prisoner A and prisoner B's caps are both white, then prisoner C would automatically know that his cap is black and would answer. But since prisoner A's is white and prisoner B's is black, prisoner C can't tell what color his cap is. Therefore, he is silent, and prisoner B knows his cap is black.

Make sense? Hopefully delivering the riddle via blog wasn't too confusing. A friend made the wise suggestion to include some sort of penalty for guessing wrong, since the prisoners could just shout of whatever color in an effort to go free. In another version of the riddle, the warden tells the prisoners that if they guess correctly, all the prisoners go free, but if they guess incorrectly, they'll all be killed. I think it's a good detail to include, should you pass the riddle along.

(Mini aside - Tomorrow morning we're flying to Shanghai for the last leg of our trip. I am ridiculously excited, as it's been compared to New York and London. Three days there, and then it's back to the states!)