So, for the summer I am kind of cheating in my efforts to educate myself for the purpose of interest and not classes. I'm going to do a lot of reading on forgiveness, the DRC, and the South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to name a few, but it is for my senior thesis. But the senior thesis was a product of my own interest, and not my education, so maybe it's not cheating. Maybe it doesn't matter.
I feel like I've neglected this blog. I hope to do better about that for the next couple of weeks.
Anyway, I am currently reading In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo. The book opened with this passage that I found amusing, and feel like I will experience to some degree in a few weeks:
"It is that revelatory moment when white, middle-class Westerners finally understand what the rest of humanity has always known-that there are places in this world where the safety net they have spent so much of their lives erecting is suddenly whipped away, where the right accent, education, health insurance and a foreign passport, all the trappings that spell 'It Can't Happen to Me' no longer apply, and their well-being depends on strangers."
Friday, May 8, 2009 | ramble by Anonymous at 6:07 PM |
Here comes San Jose!
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2 insight(s):
Will you tell me about your senior thesis? I'm very curious.
I like that passage very much... it's very interesting... it reminds me of the way I feel sometimes when I travel for school and remain mostly strict about my vegetarianism; sometimes I don't know where my next meal is going to come from, if at all, and I either stockpile food, or depend on kindness and fate. I don't know. I'm not communicating this very well. I just meant to say that the removal of that safety net is a rather powerful thing... and that I think it's good to know what it feels like to be without certain necessities once in a while.
I love that you're studying forgiveness. I think it's amazing.
it is very amazing to study forgiveness. It has really helped me a lot in my life...I mean it's great to study and learn about it, but it would be hypocritical of me not to try and apply it in my own life.
Would you like the long or short version of my senior thesis?
I could briefly tell you about it or send you my really long senior thesis proposal.
I know what you are saying. Though I haven't experienced it, it is terrifying, but exhilarating to think about my safety net being taken away in three weeks! We have become so used to things in the United States in terms of convenience...it is going to be so refreshing going somewhere where that isn't the case (as much)
I guess what I'm trying to say, is it is a chance to be resourceful and fall back on all of the wisdom everyone has given you and God.
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