Golden kids, Erin Sauders and Curtis James Tester enoying each other and the last of the sun on a Sonoma County fall dayWeb logging… Why? Why not?
Because I am jobless really.
And though I generally feel emotionally clear, my head spins with goings on, high times, low times, hopes, plans, regrets, gratitudes, and fears.
Blogging. Because I am a believer in the benefits of a diary, of a journal, of reflection.
But I have never really been able to keep a diary because I get bored. It becomes to do lists, or lists of complaints. I create several ‘themed’ journals, and end up having various notebooks piled up wondering how to organize them, and how to ever find the time to properly dedicate myself to each. I end up throwing them away.
I am an enthusiast, but not a practitioner.
I am also a believer in journalism. Often I have told journalist-aspiring friends that it is the one of the most important jobs in the world. But I certainly do not write. Woah no.
To have the passion, and the insight to drop everything, investigate, and then communicate your views to the world, is an admirable skill. Somewhere I heard that true success is communicating to others what you have seen, said or done. Maybe this is like judging whether a tree that falls in the forest without anyone around makes a noise.
The tree falls. Sound is not only perceived by human ears. The reverberation occurs, and it is god’s guess the effects that eventually ripple out.
A deed is done. A barista is tipped. You have felt appreciative and generous, whether or not she notices you putting your dollar bills in her tip jar.
I made a promise to myself, really a promise to the US government now that I think about it, to communicate my experiences to friends, family, schools…hell, the world at large with this new blogging thing. Peace Corps is mainly about three basic, and undemanding goals:
1.)To assist the host country however possible.
2.)To bring cultural understanding of America to host country.
3.)To bring cultural understanding of host country to America.
I did not fulfill the final third of my bargain with the US Peace Corps while I was in Tanzania, I did not blog, keep a journal, or do a good job at emailing (much less letter writing!)
But like I said: now I am jobless. I’ve got more time, and certainly I feel a more interesting perspective on what it means to bring Tanzania home to America, as a part of it grows inside of me, and I wait in line with the INS to bring my Fiance here.
And I love to read blogs when I can. I love to see pictures and hear stories of what others are doing. It takes time and effort to weed out the billions of other distractions that arise in a typically American day. But when I can connect to a friend or a stranger’s brutal honesty about an issue, I generally find that I walk away feeling touched and more fulfilled, and more enlightened in general than simply listening to the news.
I blog now because I have intended to, because my time allows, and because right now, I need to journal, (without having to worry about notebook clutter.) I blog because it will be an easy way to look back on this time, (and maybe someone can learn from my experiences.)
