| On my recent trip to Cambodia I was blessed to | | | | boat served as impromptu fish farms. The back of the |
| spend three days exploring the ruins collectively known | | | | boat held a primitive outhouse. Children bathed in the |
| as Angkor Wat. We experienced sunrise and sunset, | | | | lake while old women cleaned fish or cooked noodles |
| as well as the noonday heat, in this magnificent | | | | in water dipped from the same source. The lake |
| complex of temples, many built more than 900 years | | | | served not only a source of food and of cooking and |
| ago. | | | | drinking water, but as a bathtub and septic system as |
| Relics of Past Splendor | | | | well. Here the ubiquitous televisions, and the outboard |
| These shrines were created with stones carried from | | | | motors used to power the fishing boats onto the lake |
| far away; many were built without mortar, and all were | | | | each evening, were the only lifestyle changes in the |
| built without modern technology. Yet the structures | | | | last 200 years. |
| have withstood the ravages not only of time and | | | | The floating village and the bamboo shacks were light |
| weather, but also of mankind. Over the centuries | | | | years below the standard of living enjoyed by the |
| temple figures sacred to one religion (Buddhism) have | | | | Cambodians who designed and lived in the temple |
| been removed or destroyed by followers of another | | | | complex at Angor Wat 900 years ago. All of those |
| religion (Hinduism), only to be replaced by the original | | | | past splendors seem lost today. |
| worshipers (Buddhists). Just as destructive were | | | | The Lessons of Forgetfulness |
| souvenir hunters who have taken pieces from the | | | | What caused such an advanced civilization to revert |
| carvings and sold them to collectors and museums. | | | | to a shadow of its former self? And what lesson can |
| Lastly, bullet holes and bomb damage mar many of | | | | we learn from this study in contrasts? To paraphrase |
| the temple walls - a legacy of the Khmer Rouge. | | | | George Santayana's famous line, "Those who cannot |
| Like the pyramids in Egypt and the Mayan ruins in | | | | remember the past are condemned to forget it." |
| Central America, Angkor Wat is the relic of an ancient | | | | Somehow the people of that floating village have |
| civilization that was far advanced for its time. Today | | | | forgotten the grandeur of Cambodia's past. They have |
| many of the Angkor Wat temples are still in daily use. I | | | | lost touch with the creativity and spirit that made |
| saw monks and worshipers kneeling in the temples, | | | | Angkor Wat possible. Instead of moving forward, they |
| burning incense and praying. Truly a profound | | | | either stayed the same or moved backwards - and |
| experience. | | | | perhaps that amounts to the same thing. Once we |
| Emblems of Today's Squalor | | | | cease to learn, build, create and stretch, we not only |
| In contrast, on my last evening in Cambodia, I took a | | | | stop gaining or growing, we allow the rest of the world |
| boat ride through Chong Khneas, a floating fishing | | | | to pass us by. This is the equivalent of moving |
| village. This loose collection of more than 700 families | | | | backwards. |
| of fishermen and a complete support community live | | | | We must ask ourselves each day, "Am I moving |
| on boats and travel Tonlé Sap Lake following the | | | | forward or simply standing still?" In our lives and at our |
| fish and the rainy season. | | | | work we all know people who refuse to change with |
| To reach the floating village we drove through the | | | | the times. To our computer-savvy children watching us |
| town of Siem Reap and several smaller villages. The | | | | struggle to retrieve our email, we may look like |
| further from Siem Reap we traveled, the more | | | | slow-moving dinosaurs. We cannot afford the luxury |
| primitive living conditions became. Homes went from | | | | of standing still. To do so allows the world to move |
| cinder-block and concrete structures to wooden | | | | past us. More importantly from a business standpoint, it |
| houses to one-room bamboo shacks supported on | | | | allows our competition to move easily past us. |
| spindly bamboo poles to protect them from flooding. I | | | | Do you risk becoming a relic of the past or a dinosaur |
| would have been afraid to roll over in my sleep in | | | | whose fate is extinction? If you have any amount of |
| these houses, much less raise a family or ride out a | | | | doubt coursing through your veins, commit today to |
| monsoon in one. Electricity was nonexistent, and the | | | | education, growth and constant improvement, both |
| only running water was the stream we were following | | | | personal and professional. And know that if up until |
| to the lake. The only nod to the 21st century was | | | | now you've been a bit lax, you're never too old or too |
| televisions, running on car batteries and prominently | | | | young to make this commitment to yourself. The |
| displayed in the glassless windows. | | | | lesson I learned in Cambodia is that I want to be the |
| The floating village consisted of hundreds of boats, | | | | one who builds monuments for the future - not the one |
| some no bigger than 20 feet by 6 feet. Entire families | | | | who wonders how the monuments of the past were |
| lived on each boat. Cages suspended underneath the | | | | built. |