Merton in Bangkok

I was wandering around Bangkok today and randomly remembered that the Catholic theologian Thomas Merton (No Man is an Island, the Seven Story Mountain) died here. He had spent years in solitude as a Trappist monk (in a monastery in Kentucky?) but fought with his abbots for permission to leave the grounds for brief periods of time.

In 1968 a new abbot finally let him go to asia to (among other things) meet the Dalai Lama and speak at a meeting of asian Benedictines in Bangkok. While getting out of a tub in his room here he touched a poorly grounded fan and was electrocuted to death.

I feel like there is a message in that story somewhere, but I haven't been able to tease it out. Fortunately, I don't have a tub in my room.