Lights from Salem

Musings and thoughts of a traveler and armchair linguist on his journey through the ups and downs of life.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

In Honor of Patrick's Birthday!

Dear Readers,

Patrick is one of my best friends. I’ve been meaning to write a blog entry devoted to him but so far have never found the time. But now, Patrick, your time has come.

Most of you already know a little about Patrick, either by knowing him personally or from my blogs. For those of you who don’t, Patrick was a fellow WatSan volunteer, the nearest volunteer to me in Peru. As a result we spent a lot of time talking about almost any topic, although Patrick had a few choice ones he kept coming back to. I’d like to tell you a little bit about this young man.

There is the mis-founded rumor that Patrick hates fun, but a short biography that rivals even those of Marco Polo or Sir Richard Burton shows that Patrick’s middle name is Fun. And adventure. And dashing daring-do. And prodigy. He has a lot of middle names.

Patrick was born 25 years ago today, but in those 25 years he has experienced enough life to encompass a whole set of encyclopedias. Indeed his life of adventure began when he ran off and joined the circus as sword swallower. While touring through Europe and Asia he found solace in getting in touch with first his Irish and then Chinese heritage. He parted ways with the traveling circus and became a pupil of the Chinese monk Lao Chung Tze. Through past-life regressions he discovered that he formerly inhabited the body of a butterfly, and still vividly dreams of it. Under the guidance of his teacher, Patrick eventually mastered Presence and found fulfillment as a guru and often taught about the precious power of Now.

As seasons passed in the homeland of his ancestors, Patrick thirsted for more adventure, and so he set out to find treasures lost throughout the ages. In this he proved successful, discovering the Ark of the Covenant in Egypt, Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey, and Arc de Triumph in Paris, France.

Having found all the various shapes that arcs could come in, Patrick set his mind to physical mastery, inspired by living with the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico. The linguistic dominance in Spanish achieved by Patrick has been hailed as “the most colloquial of all the Piura volunteers,” a high and rare praise indeed.

He trained to get by eating a strict diet of Cold Stone, Coke Zero and Chipotle while dominating fifty Iron Man competitions in fifty states in fifty days. Satisfied by his achievement of badassery, he devoted his life for the next few years to fighting crime. He became a wizard at solving crimes, solving the infamous crimes such as “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?” He also infiltrated the crime world while disguised as a disfigured giggling clown, enabling FBI, CIA and Batman to jointly stop Russians from hijacking Air Force One. His code name, now declassified, was Sherlock “Bro”mes.

Having made his name known in the crime fighting world, Patrick then went on to study at Hogwarts, graduating the seven year program in a record two and finding the time to found a new Hogwarts house named for the rare and mystical floating animal, the Jellybird.

While singing in the Hogwarts choir, Patrick was discovered by talent scouts for his musical genius, rivaling even the Jonas Brothers. He was immediately recruited to write songs for the up and coming hit show “Glee,” and the “High School Musical” saga. Patrick was awarded Grammy for Record of the Year for his album “Close Your Eyes and Shine Like a Star” and for Single of the Year “Da Chillest Ting In Da Whole Wide World.” That same year Patrick’s prodigious and soulful musical work was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy Awards. It was also his encyclopedia-like familiarity with music and the Power of Now that enabled him to draft a peace treaty between the Jets and the Sharks, thus ending a violent feud on the West Side.

Patrick’s biggest peace-keeping challenge was yet to come, however, he befriended a little lost alien and had to devise a way for it to phone home before its home civilization misunderstood us to be holding the little squishy alien hostage and thus send ships to blow up our major cities. Patrick also volunteered to go as an ambassador of peace. He was transported through a stone ring known as a Stargate and had to communicate with the extraterrestrials in the universal language of breakdance, thus successfully being the first human to extend the olive branch across the stars.

In between extensively updating and supplementing the Encyclopedia Britannica, Oxford English Dictionary, and American Dictionary of Acronyms, Patrick found time to discover the Flying Dutchman, travel around the world in a mere 80 minutes (in a oil-free jetpack of his own design), and recreationally puts out forest fires.

Patrick has his own line of business casual clothes and gear for cold weather sites. The crown jewel of his clothing line is a wristwatch made from the robust skin of the lightning eel.

The art of the party was not invented by Patrick, but it was completely re-defined by him. It’s well known he went to Kramba Night Club with the teachers from his site one time, but one party with Patrick is the only one you’ll ever need.

In addition achieving the most profound levels of Zen, traveling to the edges of the known world and universe not just as a Peace Corps Volunteer, but as an example of the best of the human condition, inventing world-changing technology, and contributing to the collective art of humanity and speaking at TED conferences a record 14 times, Patrick is the only person so far to receive a Nobel Prize in each category:

Peace was for “Outstanding dedication to work in the last three months of service, despite being advised several times against such action.”

Literature: “For an outstanding and comprehensive body of literature regarding worm composting that has created a revolution in gardening techniques around the world in northern Peru.”

Physics: “For proposing and discovering extraordinary and ingenious methods to use fluids as it pertains to determining how long a body stays in one place.”

Chemistry: “For allowing flea killing poisons to be tested on himself, thus preventing the spread of plague.”

Economics: “For inventing a revolutionary system of exchange, where each deed is rewarded with an extemporaneous song commenting on the human condition through an economic vocabulary.”

Medicine: “For his study of lower-Andean cañazo usage and its effects on motor functions during social and economic functions in small communities.”

Patrick was recently awarded the Chuck Norris Award for actually breaking the laws of reality in sheer awesomeness. But it is indeed rather homage than an award, since it is a household fact that the character of Chuck Norris is based on Patrick himself.

A true life artist of our times, we wish you a happy birthday, dear Patrick, and many happy returns! We love you!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Life After Peace Corps

When I arrive home from traveling abroad I notice that my life often seems disoriented and confused. Even though coming home from Peace Corps was my third foray into the foreign unknown, the confusion and angst show that this homecoming has been no exception.

I've come to know myself better than in these past two years and change (the cliché is that doing a stint in Peace Corps is like getting a PhD. in Yourself) but now I'm not so sure because if one knows one's self well, they should be less confused. Maybe what I'm dealing with is not confusion, but simply angst. As I said, I went out to Seattle to see another part of the world - this time a home-grown place, but new to me. While out there though I realized I would like to continue working abroad, so I came home to save money and continue looking. And then late last week I received a reply from a position for Americans in Germany, letting me know I had not been selected.

So now I am looking towards NGOs and similar positions. But it can be hard to remain optimistic. I know that I don't have many options and so if I find something I qualify for, I need to apply for it, just so I can finally start to become more financially independent. But I worry about getting lost in the grind, trading my dreams for the promises that many people make, mainly financial ones, but then burning out. I know life doesn't have to be like that, but I see it a lot in this country. It is a culture of progress and frankly, of materialism. By it self there is nothing wrong with owning things, but if one becomes aware of all the advertising that abounds, then it is easy to see how we are constantly told our lives aren't good enough because we don't have such and such. I think it's easy to get seduced or confused by all this, and then get lost, and I know very few people who don't seem lost somehow. And what I fear is compromising myself or beliefs for an easier path of just settling for any job. Hence the pressure to once again jump into the unknown.

What does this mean? To blindly head off towards Germany? I have friends over there but no real job prospects, which would put me in a similar situation as I was in Seattle, but the stakes would be higher because there is the added cost of travel and visa's, etc. Maybe I am being a coward in not going. And I ask myself, am I being responsible for looking for work here stateside to build up a financial base, or am I just putting off taking a risk, playing it safe and stunting my inner growth?

The values of simplicity that I learned in Peace Corps are hard to hold onto and easy to forget. Of course the people there worked hard and I'm not against hard work. They also had no real choice in their lot, where we live in a culture of many freedoms. But the people in the villages I visited seemed overall happier, or at least less negative. They did not live in a Utopia of any sort. But it's striking that there is a collective fear of failure and a more obvious collective negativism that permeates through our culture. I don't know what causes this, but I would suspect that basing happiness on external success is a large part of it. As a person who has struggled with self-confidence issues most of my life, I've given a lot of thought to the issue of growth. I've always been waiting for confidence to grow within me, and until it does, it's as if I cannot be more confident yet because I virtually don't have permission yet. Indeed, we are often told of confidence and pride and esteem that grow with in us, and when I look at people, I usually think "They must feel that growth within them that makes them act so comfortable in a given situation." But I know now that confidence does not grow. Egos can grow, and feelings and passions can grow, but anything that can change is not what one truly is. It is only a falling-away of the need for external validation that can reveal who we are, that constant energy that has always been there. It's similar to sunlight in that it is always there, sometimes behind clouds or on the other side of the world, but always there, felt even in the smallest degree. It doesn't grow because that is not it's nature. Confidence then is a byproduct of this. You don't find it by testing yourself outwardly, you find it by looking inwards. Not intellectually, but with your heart. Outward tests can only show you what you already have within you. It's not something you can earn, like money. It's simply what you have to awaken to.

That's why I think we live see so much negativity and fear. The external word promises validation, but external things change, like the weather, like fads, like feelings. There is a presence that doesn't change that we are part of. It's easily obscured, but always there.

Saturday, March 05, 2011

Still Looking

Hello all,

It is high-time for an update. I've been meaning to write for a while, so I finally sat myself down to do it.

In my last post I was in Seattle looking for a job. I'd never been to the west coast, much less Seattle or Washington, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Seattle is a beautiful city and I thought the people were nice. I measure that by if they wave at back when you wave at them, or if they actually act a bit conversational when you cross paths. I even met the mom of a PCV in Mongolia. I gave my email to her, but I don't know if I'll ever hear from the PCV or not. Of course, I don't know what the internet situation is in her daughter's part of the country.

Seeing Dylon was also a pleasure. I was afraid maybe we'd have changed so much we wouldn't have much in common, but it wasn't the case at all. That is to say change is inevitable, but Dylon and I still had plenty of common ground and common personality to get along like gangbusters.

I was also afraid that the weather would ruin me. Fortunately that was not the case. Seattle isn't as dreadful as people make it sound, rain-wise. It is indeed wet, but not a constant rain, and the sky, while often cloudy, is not a monotonous grey hue. That said, I still prefer more sun than what they get there, but overall I didn't find the weather to be a huge obstacle.

Looking for work is a bit of a nightmare though. First off, as lame as this sounds, I don't really know how to go and look for work. The main tool that is at my disposal is the internet, and using that to find a job is like looking for a needle in a stack of needles. There are plenty of jobs out there, but most of them I don't qualify for because a lack of five years experience in this, or an advanced degree in that, or knowledge of computers/website design or so forth. In the jobs that I applied for I never heard a single reply. I think that is something that could be improved. I'm sure there are dozens to hundreds of applicants for some of them, but it doesn't take a long time to format a stock email response saying "Dear ___, we appreciated you interest but we regret to inform you the position has been filled. Sincerely, M----" so that the applicant can have an idea where he/she stands in that prospect. I don't mean that to sound bitter, but that seems to me like it's a simple courtesy, especially since most/all jobs searched for online request your information via email.

It was in speaking with an acquaintance of mine though that I started to realize that in all the jobs I was seeking, something international was the common theme, and that perhaps I should continue to seek work internationally then. When I decided on that I came home to save money. So here I am back in Nebraska for the time being.

Job prospects:
I am seeking work in Europe, preferably Germany. Since it's early on in the game, I don't want to write too much about it, but I'm optimistic with a place I've found. Nevertheless, I have no idea how many people they take on in this position.

If I don't get that, I've thought about going to Berlin anyways. I have a friend who lives there and has offered to put me up while I look for work. My only issue with that at this time is that I'd be back at square one again. I really don't know how to test the waters over there and see what the job prospects are.

I've also thought about seeking work with an NGO of some kind. I haven't yet investigated what kind of work is available through them, but lately I've been getting curious about maybe working with refugees from other countries. I spoke with a contact about that kind of work and found that it sounded very interesting to me. There are no refugee organizations around where I live, so I can't try it out domestically, but even if I move to another city again before going abroad, I could look into this possibility. Currently I've been starting to get interested in Africa, which is interesting for me because beforehand I was interested mostly in Europe or South America. It's fascinating how interests evolve.

Teaching English. This would be a good skill to have. I don't know what kind of teacher I'd be, but I'd be willing to take a class in learning some teaching skills to better gauge if this is something I'd be interested in.

Other ideas: Please send suggestions.

I spoke to a professor about the possibility of graduate school but after talking to her became convinced that now is not the time for me to think about it. I simply am not interested in anything specific enough to devote that kind of time, energy, and money towards. My current interests are world religion/philosophy, but at this point, I'm more curious in pursuing that from an armchair scholar's perspective. There is a true pleasure in sinking into a chair and reading a book about the origin of Satan and not have to worry about being responsible for writing a dissertation about it. Perhaps academic life is not the career path for me.

So I'll keep writing as things develop, but that is where I stand for now.

Peace to my fellow RPCV family!