The Bostonian Abroad

In order to be tidy and somewhat well-organized, I began to place receipts of all kinds in a shoebox. Soon, the box was full, and I needed another one. Not long afterwards, I started putting other memorable items in there, such as photo negatives, a bracelet gift I had never given, an old wallet in which I had scrawled numbers of people I no longer know, the odd stone from here or there (I have the odd habit of pickinbg up a stone or two in my travels and keeping it as a token of memory), and people's business cards. These boxes piled up higher and higher, until one day my wife said she had had enough of the clutter. I had to go through these overstuffed time-capsules and figure out what could or should be thrown away. I sat down on the floor next to the kitchen trash can and set to work cleaning out the deadwood of my past. A Coke receipt from a bike trip I had taken from Lynn to Boston in 1982. An old and crinkled ticket stub to "Cadillac Man" in 1990. A r...

-- The Prelim exam has been attempted once more. Unprepared, I took it as a practice run for the real one in January. I do not expect to do well. As before, it did not seem as horrifying as I had feared. This summer was taken up in repair of the self. This was necessary after the breakdown of the spring. A new way of looking at it was needed, and I think I've started to build one. That perspective I had lost is starting to return to me. I don't feel stuck anymore. I don't feel doomed. I can do this; it's just going to take time.

-- I knew Tom and Eileen. We served together in the Peace Corps. They were among those I considered to be my best friends in Peace Corps Fiji.On many occasions, Tom and Eileen stayed at my place in Suva when they came into town from their teaching stint at Sigatoka Methodist School to do PC business, catch a movie and maybe get a bite at the golden arches. They were just like the rest of us PCV's. They went through the challenges of Peace Corps life and were open and honest about their experiences.They were, like me, healthily cynical and had a great sense of humor. When I found out about what had happened to them, I was beyond shocked. To see their PC ID's on CNN was something I was totally unprepared for.Over subsequent months and years, I have heard all of the ridiculous things said about Tom and Eileen, and I know that it would make their eyes roll at the self-serving nature of it all.Tom and Eileen were two of the most wonderful, vivacious, adventurous, and gener...

-- The people who laid the foundations of this country were afraid that a political group might quickly gain control of the government and enact laws that would fly in the face of what a democracy stands for. For this reason, the framers of our government designed a system which intentionally moves very slowly. Often, the citizens become frustrated with the pace of change, and think that the system is antiquated because it does not move as quickly as the pace of life in a modern-day technological age such as ours. Because the pace of life is so much faster than the government-as-designed, people argue that we must do something to quicken it up, to meet the needs of today. I believe this to be a potentially dangerous idea. The main problem with this is, just as was feared 200+ years ago, that a group could sweep too quickly into power, before it has had time to mature in the public consciousness. Very often, in this country there are movements that spark to life, become very p...

-- As a part of the sincere effort I have been making of late to improve the state of my general mood and view on life, I have returned to taking grog, or kava, tablets on a daily basis. Although it has been somewhat of a success, and I am satisfied with the results of this new regimen thus far, the very fact of taking kava again has brought back some very pleasant memories of much happier times. Kava is a drink to be truly savored, not for its taste, for that would be nearly impossible for all but a few connoisseurs whose skin is most likely quite shiny and patterned like tiles, ready to flake off at the slightest hint of a breeze, but for its heuristic and social properties; here, it remains unmatched in its abilities. One of my fondest memories of drinking kava, or as we called it in Fiji, "yaqona" (pronounced "yahn-go-nah"), was on some nondescript night during the summer, probably around January or so. I can remember sitting there in the pale anemic l...

- What does it mean to be an atheist? Does it mean to not believe in a particular god? Does it mean that you don't believe in any god at all? And what is the connection between god and religion? Can one believe in a god without a religion? What about being non-theistic? Is that the same as being an atheist? Having grown up in a religion, I had the typical foundation in christianity in that I was filled with guilt and fear. Being of a particular religion that deemed itself as having the truth, I also believed that everyone around me was going to die in armageddon, and that the wonderful end of the world was coming at any moment. Everyone in school either hated me, pitied me or thought I was a nut-job. Imagine a 7 year-old screaming out in class that christmas was all a big conspiracy, built on pagan traditions and full of idolatry! I told all my friends that santa was a lie perpetrated by their parents. You can imagine how that one went over. Yeah, religion did...

-- This being the fourth anniversary of our arrival in this error, I have endeavored to regain a perspective on the whole. This has not been easy, and is still ongoing, however, I feel slightly more confident than I have felt in a long while - though it is going to be a long struggle and, it seems, one without end. One would think after such a length of time as four years, acclimatization would have been achieved long ago, but this, it turns out, is not the case. Acculturation requires willingness on both the side of the newcomer as well as the "local". I remember telling my students in Boston, students who came from all over the globe to live and work and raise families in this country, that they are welcome here. I told them that they are the latest in a long line of new peoples to settle in this place, my home. I told them that they have every right to be here that we have, and that our ancestors had. (Here, I refer to: "your poor, your huddled masses y...