Thursday, November 8, 2012 - Day II.147 (511) A night off! Or rather, a night with my fantastic cohort and Mr. Bond...
Friday, November 9, 2012 - Day II.148 (512)
Max Weber complicates the idea of 'calling' or beruf within the Protestant tradition and coupling it to an ideology of labor, morality and social cohesion...
...but I still think this is what I am meant to do.
And am, despite it all, so lucky to spend my days immersed in exploring and learning the world in its ravishing diversity.
Saturday, November 10, 2012 - Day II.149 (513)
My best friend started using Instagram, giving me access to pictures of
the cutest boys in the world 24/7! So grateful for technology that
helps me bear this separation from the people and place I love mildly
more bearable.
Sunday, November 11, 2012- Day II.150 (514)
Today was bright and sunny, and 60 degrees! Perfect day for a run along the beach.
Monday, November 12, 2012 -Day II.151 (515)
Today my roommate revealed that I had a bottle of wine I didn't know about. I thought it was hers. Oh what small delights are mine!
Also, it snowed! How beautiful it is, from inside my warm house.
What could I possibly ask for for Christmas? Everything I cherish is already mine.
Friday, October 19 - Day II.127 (491) to Monday, November 5, 2012 - Day 144 (508)
Sometimes the well runs dry. Sometimes you have to start over. Sometimes you can't bring yourself to acknowledge the truth about yourself: the truths that are ugly, that counter who you try to be, the ones you just keep wishing weren't true.
My mind is tremendously powerful, and I am trying to work myself out of the box I have mentally created.
I have to let go of so many things to get to the next place - so many habits that brought me successfully here will not allow me to evolve into what is coming next. So I have to let go, jump into a void, create space for mistakes, allow myself to mess up, risk looking foolish, and run (kicking and screaming, let's be honest) out of my comfort zone.
In the past weeks, I keep returning to three quotations, that, if we are to believe linguistic anthropologists and their belief that our choice of words and self-expression reveal deeper structures of personhood, identity, and self-construction, represent this self I am building into:
"All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
...
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die." - WH Auden
This so much as we prepare to vote. So relevant - but also as I think about the kind of anthropologist - and thinker - I want to be and what I hope to contribute as my legacy to the way people understand the world.
And also: "Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul" - Emily Dickinson May there always be hope. May there always be hope.
And finally:
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” -Anais Nin
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 - Day II.145 (509)
Congratulations to Barack Obama!
"What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth. The belief that our destiny is shared; that this country only works
when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future
generations. The freedom which so many Americans have fought for and
died for come with responsibilities as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That's what makes America great."
-Barack Obama, Acceptance Speech, 11.6.2012
I am happy - and so so so so relieved - to have my faith in this country reaffirmed, and this man as my president for the next four years. It is reassuring that when you stand up for values, that is worth something, still.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - Day II.146 (510)
May you be blessed enough to have a best friend who acts as a mirror, holding you back up to yourself in clarity when you cannot see yourself.
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