I would like you to imagine for a moment a man (for I think I can call myself that now) getting ready for an adventure that will take him across continents and oceans. He is packing his belongings and chooses (poorly) to pack three pairs of pants. Fast forward four months. Having only three pairs of pants, this young man (a compromise) discovers much to his dismay, that Africa is not kind on Pants. Infact, it is downright cruel! He wears them every day (for to go without pants would be shameful) and this only adds to their lament! The holes get wider and the grease stains darker. He could buy pants here, but he would then have to conform to a bizarre, “French” fashion he is not too comfortable with (not that he has ever been comfortable with fashion, which is why this new crisis is all the more worrisome!) The fool, the half wit, the boy!
I’ve been reading too much, who says “half wit” these days?
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sequels never live up to the original.
By chance I was at “the lodge” the other day and caught a re-airing of the 2nd presidential debate on Al Jazzeira (sp?). Well, it was too good to last. The last debate was so inspiring and “dream like” that I got my hopes up. I should know better by now. It seems just when I think something is going good, just when I see a real change in the world for the better, something comes along and ruins it. The second debate was far too much bickering. I was yelling at the TV screen (much to Daniel’s, the short Basotho barman, dismay) for Obama to DROP IT! Take the higher road! I was begging McCain to let some low blows slide and not get into a tug of war way off topic!
A friend of mine described the first debate as “two ships passing in the night”. If that’s the case this is a full scale maritime disaster! Cannons were rolled out, boarding parties mustered and all for… nothing. In the end neither accomplished much than showing that they too can be petty.
I still love Obama but dude, come on.
A friend of mine described the first debate as “two ships passing in the night”. If that’s the case this is a full scale maritime disaster! Cannons were rolled out, boarding parties mustered and all for… nothing. In the end neither accomplished much than showing that they too can be petty.
I still love Obama but dude, come on.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Old Latin sayings make me sound smart!
“Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare current”
“They change their sky but not their soul who cross the ocean”
-Horace
Look at me, all intellectual and stuff quoting some dead guy in Latin! I came across this quotation while eating pizza with far to little sauce at a little place in Butha-Buthe in Lesotho. For obvious reasons this quotation appealed to me. I have since been trying to determine the truth of it. While on the one hand I can say the sky has changed (the stars at night are something you should behold. The constellations are all wrong, the moon upside down! The milky way a bright belt across the bulging sky!) I wonder about the second half of that, the consistency of the soul. At the risk of getting to “existential” I’d like to give you some insight into my unchanged (or changed?) soul.
I am, at the heart of it, inclined to agree with Horace. On the one hand I can say without a doubt that I have changed. I have grown in ways I never thought I would (in just 4 months!) and I have learned things I would have otherwise never known. These changes and growths, however profound, have done little to change my core beliefs. Infact, I can say now that I believe more strongly in my world view. The hopeless idealist, in the face of stark reality, has nowhere else to turn but inward, back to the idealism that drove him to reality. At the core, my morals and values are the same. I still, despite the idiocy I see, the selfishness that America can only HOPE to achieve, the single minded attitudes that are so harmful, believe that every person is, at the core good. My sky is different, for sure, but my soul, for better or worse, will never change.
One thing I will never forgive is pizza without sauce. Who taught them how to make pizza? Who would be so reckless and unforgiving!?!
“They change their sky but not their soul who cross the ocean”
-Horace
Look at me, all intellectual and stuff quoting some dead guy in Latin! I came across this quotation while eating pizza with far to little sauce at a little place in Butha-Buthe in Lesotho. For obvious reasons this quotation appealed to me. I have since been trying to determine the truth of it. While on the one hand I can say the sky has changed (the stars at night are something you should behold. The constellations are all wrong, the moon upside down! The milky way a bright belt across the bulging sky!) I wonder about the second half of that, the consistency of the soul. At the risk of getting to “existential” I’d like to give you some insight into my unchanged (or changed?) soul.
I am, at the heart of it, inclined to agree with Horace. On the one hand I can say without a doubt that I have changed. I have grown in ways I never thought I would (in just 4 months!) and I have learned things I would have otherwise never known. These changes and growths, however profound, have done little to change my core beliefs. Infact, I can say now that I believe more strongly in my world view. The hopeless idealist, in the face of stark reality, has nowhere else to turn but inward, back to the idealism that drove him to reality. At the core, my morals and values are the same. I still, despite the idiocy I see, the selfishness that America can only HOPE to achieve, the single minded attitudes that are so harmful, believe that every person is, at the core good. My sky is different, for sure, but my soul, for better or worse, will never change.
One thing I will never forgive is pizza without sauce. Who taught them how to make pizza? Who would be so reckless and unforgiving!?!
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