Sunday, November 25, 2007

What matters

So it's been far too long since I've posted. The fall has been different: a rocky start from missing school, difficult classes, accomplishing less than I think I should, and perpetual fatigue. The endless self-criticism...I am not good enough, and I never will be.

"We had the experience, but missed the meaning." T.S. Eliot.

I don't want that to be me. For the meaning is far beyond what I can comprehend. And the only way to approach it is to get outside myself and into someone else.

It's snowing outside, dome shining against the grey-blue sky.
I understand some of the dome's tarnish.
Freedom should start here.
My friends are playing Christmas Carols across the hall.
The Khmer Rouge tribunals started last week with Duch's testimony.
I'm going to Haiti over Christmas break.
We're already deciding on next year's Cambodia students...so many would give so much to the experience.
I spent Thanksgiving with 84 family members, two of whom fought breast cancer.
Through various experiences this fall, I've seen disparities in the U.S. healthcare system.
I have a physiology test that I'm not prepared for on Tuesday, and three papers, and a presentation to high-schoolers.
I'm writing about humanitarian aid in Darfur, and health care justice in the U.S.....finally, things that matter.
On my 21st birthday, I might get to hear Dr. Jim Yong Kim speak about the implementation gap in health care delivery.
This blog wasn't/isn't intended to be biographical.
But I need to reflect on the meaning in everyday life.
I'm wasting time...or am I?
I understand the homeostatic compensations our bodies try to make to compensate for diahhrea. People are dying from diahhrea right now.

I miss Lem Phalla and Sothearith.
I wish Men Malis hadn't died.

Two Haitians and one Cambodian sent me emails to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. The beginning of our colonialism...wouldn't Haiti have been better off without pilgrims?

What matters?
Where's the meaning?

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