I heard a speaker at work the other day talking about how we all live life between two trees. Paradoxically, the first tree is the tree of death. This tree starts our journey; only after we know the taste and character of good and evil are we able to live with a mission in this world. That mission is reconciliation and it should consume us. The second is the tree of life, whose fruit we eat in all its sweetness only when our struggle here has ended. It is a beautiful image. It implies that we become progressively more alive as we get older, that age is not a sign of decay but only I sign of what is to come. I was encouraged, and that is saying a lot for such a disenchanted Christian.
I wanted to start this blog up again for obvious reasons. I have started a completely new life and I want to keep the interested updated, the curious satisfied, and the stalkers informed. In short: I have moved to Washington DC to work a summer job with World Vision International [http://www.wvi.org]. The first week of my job has been spectacular. I am honing my research skills and producing briefs on the dimensions of turbulent contexts around the world. My subject countries are Indonesia’s West Papua region, and Georgia. I have learned a lot this first week! My department exists to provide a critical analysis of the context in which World Vision administers aid and does development in the hopes that we are not supporting war or conflict, but rather enabling the local population to be peacemakers. We do not make peace, but we could help it along by not undermining it with our good intentions and misunderstandings.
Outside of work the transition to DC has had its moments. I must say that the adjustment has been harder than I anticipated. That isn’t saying much though, I had no time to anticipate anything at all. The last month I had in Seattle was a complete whirlwind of school, graduation, preparation, goodbyes, and packing. I had not time to think about how my whole life was going to change. So now that I am here I am experiencing the altogether dreadful feeling of shock. Maybe culture shock (which is ridiculous in light of all the traveling I have done and escaped it). I would say that my second week here was better than the first in terms of comfortability, optimism, and relaxation. Hopefully it keeps building…
This is all to say that I am living life between the trees. Equipped with the knowledge of good and evil, I am becoming more and more alive. I am excited about the proximate future and scared about the distant one. I have always been one to struggle through big questions, to fight every potential answer along the way and attempt to have some fun as well. I’d love it if you’d go on this journey with me.
