Solidarity

I don't think this needs much explanation. I went to grad school with Luke Zahner (wow -- eleven years ago!). He has always been one the most empathetic, senisitive and loyal friends that I have had. So you can imagine how happy I was when he met his partner, Chris La Fargue, four years ago (god, it seems like longer), and he was just as wonderful and complementary to Luke. In fact, Chris so often has interesting dreams about me that I am thinking that we need to either go to a dream anaylst or therapy together! Right now both Luke and Chris have joined the US Foreign Service and both are serving in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Luke works in the politcial section of the State Department and Chris works on education from the side of USAID. They have always supported my life's ups and down whether from close or far -- but this takes it to new levels.

They wrote to me:

"We thought, if we can't be with you, then at least we can shave our heads in solidarity. Hope you are doing OK. We miss you, and we love you very much."

They also noted that they were headed to Nepal for a week over Eid (they are there now). Chris wrote (and this would my fear so I totally relate to him): "At any rate, I'm glad we're not going to Europe on our vacation, where we would be mistaken for neo-Nazis, but are going to Nepal instead, where we'll actually sort of blend in with the Buddhists. In fact, I think we'll go to Bodhna temple just to see if we can get discounts on the Tibetan antiques!"

You go boys!