Reconnecting with the World
January 30, 2009
I like to think I read a lot and keep up on current events. But, to be perfectly honest, I have a way of getting lost in my own world. I joined AmeriCorps*NCCC in 2006 and had inconsistent access to what was going on in the world. It was just as easy to be oblivious about the world working in a big city (Chicago) as it was working on a fireline in western Montana.
For most of the past 3 years, I did not have easy access to the internet, and often had minimal cell phone service. I have been focused on my own little world because of what I thought were influences outside of my control. I now have an apartment that came with cable television and I have job that puts me in front of the internet for 10 hours a day, yet I am still no more informed than when I was living at the James Park cabin up near the Indian Peaks Wilderness.
By almost total coincidence, I couldn’t even tune into the most historic of recent events, the inauguration of President Obama. In the middle of my oh-so-connected world (I even have a blackberry now), I was sailing in the backcountry of Florida Bay as a part of training for my job with Outward Bound. Someone even brought small radios so each boat could listen to the address. About the time the festivities were starting, we started to head up a narrow channel. The wind shifted and we found we couldn’t sail through the channel, but making the decision too late to effectively row through. I heard the phrase “winter of hardship” while six of us were trying to row off the flat we’d laid onto a half dozen times already. We rowed only to slow our backward movement, finally realizing we needed to find another way around when the audience was applauding what I have heard was an excellent speech.
Part of my goal for starting this blog is to just have a reason to become more informed and to take the time to filter the massive amount of information on the web, to become as much a part of the conversation out in the world as the one constantly going on in my head. So here’s to putting myself out there and seeing if anyone will listen.
