One Year on Earth

My negative encounter with one of the Eat, Pray, Love characters didn’t lessen my desire to track down the other.  Soon after we left Wayan’s, Derek and I set off by motorcycle in search of Ketut Liyer.  Given the morning I’d just had, I wasn’t expecting much.  Happily, Ketut proved me wrong.

We arrived at Ketut’s house in time to see him dashing across his doorway in his skivvies.  A friendly man who turned out to be Ketut’s son instructed us to wait on the front porch.  Soon, a half-dressed Ketut emerged and, with a broad smile that showed off his few remaining teeth, warmly welcomed us to his house.  As he robed himself in the traditional clothing of a medicine man, he invited us to accompany him to a marriage ceremony at which he was to bless the offerings made to the love gods on behalf of the newlyweds.  Clearly, we accepted his invitation.

A short walk later, we arrived at an altar piled high with sweets and baskets of fruit.  The bride and groom, who were seated in front of it, smiled at us warmly.  Someone handed us plates of wedding cake and bottles of warm Coke.  This is not how we would have treated tourists who barged into our wedding and started madly taking pictures.  We were amazed at everyone’s hospitality and at our own good fortune.

After Ketut had finished his ceremonial duties, which largely seemed to involve chanting melodic prayers and ringing a hand-held, gold bell, he invited us back to his porch, where he proceeded to read our palms, our faces, our legs, our necks and our backs.  After this thorough inspection, I’m happy to report that Derek and I are going to live to be 102 and 101, respectively, that we’re blessed with both intelligence and good luck and that, someday, we’ll be very wealthy.  (I wish that I hadn’t read that he says this to everyone, but I choose to believe him, anyway.  Who am I to question a medicine man who may himself already have reached age 102?)

We declined Ketut’s pleasant offer to buy one of his paintings for $200 US (surely Eat, Pray, Love has allowed him to boost his prices a bit) and left his house with our faith restored.