Thursday, July 26, 2018

Doused


Over the weekend I received a distressed email from a friend telling me that she was in the midst of trying to resolve an Internet identity theft issue. She said she was consumed for two days trying to “fix things,” and that she was suicidal. The email alarmed me; I even wondered if the email itself was a scam. I texted her, telling her that things didn’t sound right, and cautioned her to stop providing any more information to anyone, or doing anything PERIOD, until she could have other eyes assess her situation.

Turns out that my friend got sucked in by fake Apple Support representatives via an 800 number provided to her via a phishing email.  Expert brain fuckers manipulated her to use cash to buy Google Play money cards; she relinquished money card information to the scammers, who then cashed in.  Embarrassed, she did not want to tell me how much money she had lost, but she admitted, “It is a lot of money.”

This story shook me up. How could my friend, a regular technology user and reasonable, smart person, fall for such an evil scheme?  She is not alone. Victims of online fraud in the U.S. lost an estimated $800 million in the last year.  These scams often start with an email, so I don’t respond to an email unless I know who sent it to me. I don’t open unsolicited emails with suspicious generic subject lines and never open attachments from an email I do not recognize; I just delete them.  Also, I never give out personal or financial information unless I have initiated the transaction. If someone is keeping me on the telephone, that’s a bad sign. I hang up if they persist.

Still, I’m curious about these scammers who tricked my friend. Do they inhabit the dark web? Who trained them?  Who is profiting from these scams? How or will they be caught?   My friend told me she felt as if she were in a trance, following the directions of these malevolent imposters who kept directing her to give them more money.

I think about vulnerability and the fraudulent/perilous nature of these times.  What does it take to protect yourself?  Laughter, anger, a gun?  Hackers, swindlers, liars, autocrats, and their collaborators surround us.   So many institutions, systems, countries and their governments operate with a breathtaking degree of corruption. The media circus/reality television show that is being executive produced by the orange blimp baby and masterminded by a Russian ex-spy and strong man, entrances us.  It’s crazy.

At the park today, I stopped to talk with a small Indian girl about twelve, who was playing fetch with her golden retriever.  I looked at the forehead of her dog, and noticed a reddish orange mark about the size of the tennis ball that was lodged in the dog’s mouth.  “What is that?” I asked.

The girl explained that it was colored arrowroot powder, thrown at her dog in celebration of Holi, an Indian holiday.  I asked her to tell me more.  “We make different colored powders and throw them at each other for fun,” she said.  She mentioned something about demons, but the girl went bounding off after the retriever before I got clarification.

When I returned home I did some research and learned that Holi is a “festival of colors" or the "festival of love” that celebrates the victory of good over evil.Based on a story from the Bhagavat Purana, a demon king named Hiranyakashipu, to fulfill his desire for immortality, performed penances so that the creation god Brahma bestowed upon him five special powers: he could be killed by neither a human being nor an animal, neither indoors nor outdoors, neither at day nor at night, neither by astra (projectile weapons) nor by any shastra (handheld weapons), and neither on land nor in water or air.

Hiranyakashyapu felt invincible, which led to extreme arrogance. He proclaimed that only he be worshiped as a God, and that he would kill anyone who did not accept his orders. His own son Prahlad, refused and continued believing and worshipping Vishnu, another of the big 3 Hindi deities.

This pissed off Hiranyakashyapu and he made various attempts to kill Prahlad. King Hiranyakashyapu asked his sister Holika for help. Holika had a special cloak garment that prevented her from being harmed by fire. Hiranyakashyapu instructed her to sit on a bonfire, holding Prahlad on her lap. However, as the fire roared, the garment flew from Holika and covered Prahlad.  Holika burnt to death and Prahlad emerged, unharmed.

Vishnu appeared in the form of Narasimha - half human and half lion, at dusk (when it was neither day nor night), took Hiranyakashyapu at a doorstep (which was neither indoors nor outdoors), placed him on his lap (which was neither land, water nor air), and then eviscerated and killed the king with his lion claws (which were neither a handheld weapon nor a launched weapon). Prahlad and all human beings were freed from the compulsion and fear of Hiranyakashyapu, and good triumphed over evil.

On the eve of Holi, after sunset, people light a bonfire and sing and dance around the fire, praying for the destruction of evil.  The next morning they celebrate Rangwali Holi – a free-for-all festival. In the streets, open parks, and outside temples, they throw colored powders and drench each other with water and water balloons.

I’m wondering if I should stop by my friend’s house and douse her with some colored arrowroot powder.  With so much evil triumphing over good in the world, I worry that we, like Holika, do not have adequate cover. In lieu of waiting for Vishnu to vanquish the demons, we must exercise caution, not fear, and celebrate all the good things with as much joy as the young girl with the marked dog demonstrated, as they ran through the park.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Swimming with Horses

Fear, it wasn’t what I expected to feel as I sat on the bare back of a fifteen year old horse named Sage, who was taking me for a swim at Prosser Lake in Truckee, California.

I signed us up for a special trail ride at the Piping Rock Equestrian Center, inspired by a youTube video that my daughter showed me of large pigs swimming in the Bahamas.  Who knew this was even a thing that pigs could do? Sophie wanted to swim with the pigs, but since we only had a four day family vacation planned, I thought an aquatic adventure with horses in Tahoe might be fun.

After uneventfully traversing the brown dusty mountain trail for an hour, ducking to avoid occasional branches, we arrived at the remote, uninhabited lake. We took the saddles and blankets off the horses, and removed our jeans and shoes. Lani, our strapping trail guide with stunningly white legs, who by summer works as a wrangler, and by winter teaches skiing to kids at the Northstar resort, helped me onto Sage’s back. “What happens if I fall off,” I asked her.  “Just swim,” she said, “I’ll come in and get the horse.” 

I summoned my courage, and took the plunge, steering my horse straight into the water. Sage found his footing on the muddy bottom, then started moving towards the middle of the lake.  As the water got deeper, the horse just let go and started paddling, with me on his back, holding the reins in one hand, and grabbing strands of his black and white mane with my other hand.
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The cool refreshing water enveloped me as I glanced nervously over at Sophie, who was parallel to me, riding Roscoe, a dappled rust colored older horse, who like Sage, loved to swim.   “I’m scared,” I called to her, but Sophie and Roscoe seemed content and comfortable.  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” I said, “but I’m going to do what you’re doing.” I took a breath and went with the flow, following Sophie and Roscoe’s lead.

I knew that I had to trust Sage, after all, he had a name that commanded respect, and just relax into the moment. I rarely have the opportunity to do something completely new; often this involves relinquishing a certain control over my fate that is both humbling and exhilarating. Under a brilliant blue sky, surrounded by mountains blanketed with deep green pines, I melded into this large confident creature. “Sage is smiling,” Sophie announced.  “He’s actually smiling!” I smiled widely, too.

Lani, on a giant easily spooked horse named Pike, returned to shore after a number of unsuccessful attempts to get him to take a dip in the lake.  She waved to us, taking photos with my iPhone. 

About ten minutes into our swim, Apache, a younger horse, reared up and threw another rider in our group, a thirteen year old girl, off his back, into the water.  Apache bolted to shore and then took off at a gallop.  Meredith, another young but experienced equestrian exited the water, dismounted, then quickly saddled up her horse, and went after Apache.  

Sophie and I stayed in the water for another half an hour, submerged on the backs of our aquatic equines. The horses happily swam about; at one point, Roscoe went so far under that Sophie almost floated right off his back. 

“I had no idea this was even on my bucket list,” remarked Sophie, as the four of us left the magnificent mountain lake. 

We sat on the dry golden grass and drank some water, taking in the beauty of our surroundings.  Miraculously, the amazing Meredith caught Apache, and ponied the horse back to the group.  We saddled up and made our way back to the stables, Sage taking his sweet time on the trail.  He clearly preferred swimming to schlepping. Wise horse.

-- dedicated to the memory of horse person and person extraordinaire, Colm Costello.