Etc..

Hey, kid, that wasn't very nice

This experience, said a spokeswoman for the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City, "teaches us that nothing is permanent." Her words showed a generosity of spirit that a less forgiving person might not have been able to manage. If you haven't heard, the experience took place last week inside the Union Station railroad terminal. Visiting Tibetan monks had painstakingly completed more than half of an intricate design – called a mandala – on the main floor, using brightly colored grains of sand to depict the concept of compassion. After they'd suspended work for the day, a woman with a small boy walked by, carrying a package to be mailed at the postal annex inside the station. Only, as recorded by a surveillance camera, the lad spotted the mandala, ducked under a restraining rope, and – in the words of one interested party – "did a little tap dance on it." Videotape then shows him about to leave when he seems to decide that once wasn't enough. So he returns and – ah – rearranges it a second time, leaving only small sections of the border intact. At that point, Mom reappears, grabs his arm, and they disappear off-camera. The monks, in town on a fund-raising tour, said they'd start over, although "we will have to work harder" to finish. As for the boy, one monk, speaking for his colleagues, said they think of him as innocent.