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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
Lama with a swoosh
>> Kalakaua Avenue
Driving the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa to the upscale Waikiki hotel where he would discard his disguise and go back to being himself in public, Lily Ah Sun had a sudden thought as they neared Niketown.
"Khan and Bodhicita tell me you're quite a runner, Lama Jey," she said.
He'd run both of them, even the ridiculously fit Khan, into the ground on a hilly five-miler through Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, then ran another five back to Khan's home as he and Bodhicita followed in his truck. Without them to slow him down, the young lama covered the second five miles in just over 23 minutes, way faster than the first.
"I love to run," he said from the backseat. "I find a certain kind of freedom when I run, like meditation."
"You see the store on the left there, Niketown?"
The young lama had spent the last 16 years studying and meditating in the Himalayas of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Mustang. When he ran, he ran in sandals. But he loved the T-Macs that Khan provided as part of the disguise. "They have a store just for athletic shoes?" he said, amazed.
"Yes, and a good friend of mine is a manager there. I'll bet she'd be interested in giving you some kind of sponsorship?"
"I'm not sure I understand this term?"
"Basically, they'd give you Nike clothes and shoes to wear, for free."
"Since I'm about to go back to wearing robes, the clothing is of little value. But these shoes Khan gave me are really nice."
"And those aren't even running shoes, Lama Jey, they're for basketball."
"Why would she give them to me at no cost?"
"People see a runner like you wearing Nikes, plus you being a living Buddha, it sends a message, hey, maybe I should be wearing Nikes too."
"Ah, I see. There are messages I wish to convey, Mrs. Ah Sun, but promoting one brand of shoes is not high on my list."
"I understand, but you have to wear something on your feet. And you wouldn't have to give speeches. It could give you a wider audience for the messages you want to share. You don't mind, I'll call Cindy later and ask."
"Shoes that are lighter even than these?"
"Oh yes. Like feathers."
So it was that the lama began wearing Nikes when he went out to run. And up at Nike headquarters in Oregon, Phil Knight had his team design a saffron-and-crimson shoe that would match the lama's robes. That led to a series of print ads and TV commercials, showing the lama running, his robes flowing gracefully behind him, and another of him meditating serenely -- "Om mani padme hum" -- sitting cross-legged in his Nikes, with the message, "Just meditate it."
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Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com