la destra

A dinner table in northern Italy. Three Americans, a Brasilian, a Turk and an Italian. Everyone strives to communicate in Italian, the Italian seems annoyed with the pace of the others' sentences. An American attempts to tell a joke about Berlusconi, due to the complexity of the sentence, pauses at first, thinks a bit, then says "Do you like Berlusconi?" to the Italian. Unexpectedly, he answers "yes." All the liberal arts college students stop moving in shock. They are so very used to liberal points of view and understanding responses. The joke is never told, and the conversation ends when the Italian says " I don't allow any talk of communists or juventus in my house." It's 2008.

article

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/the-mirrored-ceiling/

I like how Judith Warner thinks.

Sarah Palin

Who the hell is presumptuous enough to think that intelligent feminist women will vote for a stupid old man just because his running mate is also a woman? That's so insulting. If Hillary Clinton had been nominated and chosen a man as her potential vice president, there would be nobody talking about how it could attract the male vote. And no one talks about Biden's whiteness being a potential draw for white voters.

This election is so damn sexist. Because apparently us women are now dumb enough to switch from Clinton to a woman who is against abortion, wants to drill for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Preserve, and denies that global warming is affected by human behaviour.

US politics make me so frustrated.

Pensamientos

I've been thinking a lot these days, about politics and social movements and apathy and stupidity and where I fit in, and what I am doing in my life (and this is unusual?, you say skeptically). But I was just reading the blog of our friend (its a great blog), and I had an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy. Which is completely irrational, because I know that we all have different manners of exploring and journeys in our lives, and that I really can't do everything. But at the moment, he's traveling around Israel and Palestine and planning to spend a semester of the next year studying in universities in each. And I'm sitting in Chile, avoiding a paper, reading his blog which is wonderfully written and full of insightful reflections. And I know that I'm here for a reason, and I'm trying to make the most of it, but it seems so mundane right now.

That it seems mundane is I think part of what bothers me. My time last summer working at the US-Mexico border was so intense, so full of overwhelming information and really really tangible tragedy (and wonderful instances of human goodness). I found myself thinking many of the same things he is writing about right now, and I still haven't completely processed it (as is obvious). I also know I'll go back, which is a little comforting. But that experience makes this one seem so irrationally frivolous.

Irrational, because I know it isn't frivolous at all. I'm learning so much, having so many experiences that I could never otherwise have, and I have so many reasons to be here. And I know in a way that its all part of my larger education, that the things I learn here (even if all I learn is Spanish) will be infinitely useful later on in my life. I do love this place, as well. And I intellectually know that all experiences cannot be earth-shaking, and that its terrible to judge their value by how traumatizing they are. But there's this little nagging frustration that I'm not doing something with this semester that really shakes how I think about the world, and its not a very nice feeling.

I guess unsettled would be a good way to describe it. Dearest e, why must I continuously analyze and agonize over my existence in the world?