16 March, 2006

The Grass is Always Greener

Recently I came across an old email I wrote to some friends last year. I had just finished reading a letter from one of them who was in Sudan at the time, participating in deeply significant work to reconcile various tribes as well as working towards a peace agreement in the civil war that has been raging for decades.

“Well, after just reviewing Ross's Sudan newsletter, I figured I could send a bit of an update myself. Two days ago, I was babysitting. I decided to go the route of negligence and did my best to research the peso crisis of 1994 while two 3-year-old boys played upstairs. After about 5 minutes I realized it was time to check on them... Both had stripped off pants and underwear and were seated on the bathroom counter trying to brush their teeth. There were sprinklings of pee in various buckets and corners, but none in the toilet as far as I could tell. What WAS in the toilet was about half a roll's worth of toilet paper... When asked if they had put anything else in the toilet, one child responded wide-eyed, "Coins."
Coins? What kind of coins?
"Four (with same # of fingers to demonstrate) pennies."

This is representative of normal events in my life at this point. I (perhaps erroneously) anticipate a change when I graduate, a change that will allow me to maybe be involved in something just a few steps closer to universal significance. Until then, though, I will enjoy observing the strange and fascinating lifestyles of small children, and acting to avert disastrous injuries to either them or my academic performance.”

So here I am, all graduated and whatnot, living in Croatia, and I miss those little kids like crazy.

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