The Mystery of Pico Iyer - Part I

Yesterday, as I was walking home from yoga class, I passed a neighbor's rose garden, and a thought popped into my head. It consisted of two words:

Pico Iyer.

This was a strange throught to pop into my head, as I had no idea who he was. I thought to myself, "Dude is named after a font - cool." And then - "Is that the graphic designer who named his daughter after Bodoni?" (No, that would be Tibor Kalman.) And finally - "I think he's an academic of some sort - maybe from a foreign country."

I dismissed the thought and went home. An issue of National Geographic Traveler had arrived at my apartment, and I opened it, only to find myself staring at the contributors page, and on it, the name:

Pico Iyer.

Weird. What were the odds? So I immediately turned to the article he penned, and read it. It was about a last minute trip he took to Bhutan. "What does this mean?" I asked myself. "Am I supposed to visit Bhutan? Please God, don't make me visit Bhutan." (Bhutan is one of the most remote nations in the world; only a handful of companies are authorized to bring tourists in, and it's very, very expensive.)

So I looked Mr. Iyer up on Wikipedia, hoping to see something that seemed relevant to my life. It turns out that Iyer is a renowned travel writer, and his books, while intriguing, don't compel me to read them.

The only thing I could find was a book called The Lady and the Monk. It's an account of a year Iyer spent in a Buddhist monastery in Kyoto, which is a city I will visit in two weeks. It's also the story of how he met his wife, and I enjoy a good love story as much as anybody else.

I'll read it, visit Kyoto, and report on any synchronicities.