For those of you who have no idea who I am or perhaps are just hoping
to discover something they didn't know, I shall here provide a brief biography.
Long-haired Les with some Korean students
If you have continued reading thus far, this rather modest life of mine must interest you somehow. To this end, I will comment further on it, having covered the basics.
My life has been a rather hodgepodge affair since high school (and even before you might say). It surprises some old acquaintances I encounter these days to discover that I am a teacher, and in Asia of all places. In former days they envisioned this once ambitious boy becoming a businessman or a politician. Certainly not a lowly paid school teacher far across the Pacific.
In elementary school I was a semi-nerd, but a likeable enough fellow, who did well academically and had his share of friends. When I was in grade seven I began my own small gardening and landscaping business. (Cutting lawns, weeding, making gardens, etc.) At school I enjoyed a brief career in retailing; I would buy candy after school at a corner store and sell the stuff at school at considerable markups during recess and lunchtime. After a month or so of this, some teachers caught on and thought it not appropriate, shutting down my little endeavor. (One of my first run-ins with regulatory authority.) I then began a poker corner in the classroom during recess and lunchtime, until our little penny-betting fun was similarly shut down. During those days I was also an avid comic book collector and trader.
The first half of junior high school was a tough slog as I was then suddenly a small fish in a big pond full of snarly sharks who didn't like my ways, but by grade 9 I was finding my place again and writing for the school newspaper ("The Woodlands Buzz"). I was the horror and supernatural editor-writer. At this time I took on the post of treasurer for the school annual -- the first of many such treasurer posts to follow in life. In grade 9 I also began a bigger involvement with business through Junior Achievement and in grade 10 became president of the Nanaimo JA company. In grade 10 I also introduced to politics (Young Socreds) and began an involvement that would last 10 years.
Senior High School was a highly satisfying two years, with good friends and plenty of activities. I wrote for the school newspaper again, was treasurer of the school student council and grad committee. I also enjoyed a brief stint with the cross country club, until my athletic limitations were made clear to myself and I retired gracefully from competitive sports. Politics and business continued, and I was active in two big elections during this time. In grade 11 I also took a part-time job working as a sales clerk in a downtown sports store.
I studied business at college and university for five years, during which time I paid for my studies through a small irrigation business I owned and managed. Despite inclinations towards changing my major to law and then philosophy, I continued to study business, but with plenty of philosophy courses as electives. My involvement in politics deepened during these years and I served on the executives of both federal and provincial parties until disenchantment set in. (After tearing up my Progressive Conservative membership in 1986, I joined the Reform Party.) Unfortunately the timing was bad when I graduated as Canada was in recession and I was not able to secure a job. I was not especially keen on spending my life climbing the corporate ladder and my personal experience with small business had put me off being an entrepreneur (a life revolving almost wholly around the pursuit of profit). I subsequently spent a large part of the next two years traveling, as well as working a bit in dead-end jobs. In this time I accomplished my 'magnum opus' -- driving across Canada, exploring New England in autumn and returning across America. When I returned home in the spring of 1991, I had decided I would become a teacher.
In two years of studying elementary education in my hometown, I began to feel that I fit in and developed a passion for teaching. At this time I threw up my hands in frustration at the state of politics and after ten years of involvement it joined business in the trash bin of my life. Rude fate visited me again and when I graduated teaching jobs were few and far between. I opted to take a five month Asia Pacific Teaching program at my college and spend three months to a year teaching in Thailand. Asia was entirely foreign to me at that time; little did I know that I would spend the next seven years of my life there and it would shape me profoundly.
Three months in Thailand expanded into nearly two years. I loved where I taught and was quite passionate about learning Thai language and culture. An important part of Thai culture is Buddhism and so I went beyond my initial mild interest in Zen and studied and practiced the Theravada Buddhism of Thailand. I was attending a ten-day meditation retreat in the south of Thailand in 1994 when my mother died and so the teachings of the Buddha about attachment and suffering became very personal. In the next few months I tried to make sense of a world that had changed profoundly for me. In 1995 I returned to Canada for ten months, but it was a unsatisfying time in regards to work and so I returned to Asia, this time to Korea to teach for another two years. There I continued my Buddhist studies, delving then into Mahayana Buddhism of North Asia. Despite being in the midst of the Asian economic meltdown, I did well financially during this time and was also able to travel in the area. One big trip in 1997 took me through China to Hong Kong, then to Indonesia and up through Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, then over to Burma, and then back to Canada. The Asia part of this trip took me nearly four months. In 1998 I went further, and added India and Nepal to my travel log. At the end of 1998 I was determined to put in one more year in Asia, but was undecided whether to teach in Thailand again or try a year in Taiwan. My old school in Bangkok wooed me back and so I accepted and I agaom taught English at Suan Sunandha Secondary Demonstration School in Bangkok, Thailand from January 1999 until October 2000. Perhaps it was fated as I was thus able to meet the woman who became my wife.
Look a little deeper than the actions only of this man. Who is
Leslie Barclay? I consider myself to be something of a misfit with
eclectic tastes; a Buddhist as well as a conservative (classical
liberal) and something of a social-libertarian at heart. My strong
opinions and direct manner of speaking and behaving don't endear me to
everyone. Freedom is a chief value of mine, but not the only one.
I concluded several years ago that the good life for me is one guided by
love and wisdom, that these two forces should predominate. There
is a part in the splendid play "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder when the protagonist
asks a ghost "How many people truly realize life while they live it, each
and every moment?" He answered "Not many. The saints and the
poets they do some." It's a sad fact that most folk stumble along
blindly and habitually from womb to tomb. It is easier to merely
exist than really live, letting habit and routine dominate our days.
Buddhism teaches that ignorance is the first cause of suffering.
It is only when we become awake and live mindfully that we can begin to
transcend suffering that is founded on ignorance, greed, attachment, anger
and hatred. One needn't be a saint to live fully awake.
When you are awake, you realize that all things are connected and that
everything you do affects something in the world besides only yourself.