unpacking/packing.
just 3 weeks ago i was sitting just like this, at home, enjoying a similarly quiet hour, trying to collect and rally myself before a trip. i leave today, but have not yet packed. i’m not really nervous about this one. i mean, after being in kyrgyzstan…where danger was imminent, i do not really fret. the worries there are much different than the ones here. here, it is about keeping time, finances, the next meal. there, well, it was truly a life and death affair.
so here i am, trying to prep in any way for this 5 1/2 weeks long mission trip to taiwan and china, but i only have some wires and chargers strewn on the dining room table. clothes are washed and folded, sitting pretty on a couch in the family room, waiting to find its way into a suitcase that has not yet been opened.
my mind is not on. i think the fat has reentered my brain. i am in danger of dying from complacency, yet again. how hard it is to stay fit and vibrant in this nation of distraction and disillusionment. i’ve come to realize i really appreciate the simple life when i’ve gone to visit “less developed” nations. whether it’s from less distractions and more concentration, or merely the dissociation that comes with traveling to foreign and novel places, leaving behind the life we’ve cultivated and swear our boredom on.
perhaps once i watch new york’s skyline shrink again will my heart begin to beat with the strength i once knew. it seems, at least for me, far easier to live anywhere but here. oh america, how am i going to deal with you? this is an open-ended question i leave for myself to answer in the coming weeks.
