Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Immortalizing Every Person In New York
Saturday, December 12, 2009
ho ho ho
Monday, December 07, 2009
ah, love.
old, old stuff
was going through the folder in my hard drive that i reserved for "recreational writing," though high school and college etc. (i.e. all the stuff i never had to submit for a grade) and i found some little things that brought back some serious memories. it's times like these that i remember why it's so important to write-- these are experiences that would have eroded into some dusty past. some good, some bad, but i'm glad to be able to say, i lived that...
I know how your hands feel over mine, and I know the calluses over your fingers, and I know the brownness of your eyes and the smallness of your mouth, and the way your lips purse together when you’re watching baseball. I know how red and puffy your face gets when you’re really exhausted, and your funny, ineloquent accent. I know the warmness of your skin and the warmness of your body. I know how it feels when your palm rests on the back of my leg, and the curve of your shoulders when you’re hunched over your desk. I know how afraid you are of getting close to me, ever since I learned how your lips feel pressed against mine, and how your nose feels pressed against mine, and how your soft, slow tongue feels pressed against mine. I know your nervous habit of running away from me when others are around and I know the tenderness of your voice, the kindness of your eyes, the quietness, the sweetness of your affection that hangs in the air—like steam from a hot shower—when we are alone in a room.
Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
a good sell
i'm a sucker for the creative, interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking ads that make an impression. it's really an artform-- whether youre selling a brand, a product, a message, or all three, you only get 30 seconds to make it stick. and with all that bad-vertisement that somehow makes it onto our tubes, when it's done well, it stands out. Enter HTC.
the right look, message, music, everything. saw it for the first time earlier today and for some reason, it's in my head. hopefully, in about a minute, it'll be in yours...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
what do you wish would happen by the end of the day?
Where do you wish you could wake up tomorrow?
It's a simple question and the answers can lead us anywhere. So go ahead, ask yourself."
www.fiftypeopleonequestion.com
Monday, October 12, 2009
ForamsList.com
Uptown 6 - 9 AM- Unbearable Lightness of Being - m4w (Midtown East)
Date: 2009-10-09, 12:41PM EDT
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
I saw you on the L train platform... - m4w
Date: 2009-10-09, 1:37AM EDT
It was Thursday night. We were both waiting for the 8th ave bound L. You were reading a book. I had just come down the stairs when I stopped to wait for the train and then there you were.
You were wearing a pink v-neck sweater, white collared button up shirt underneath, gray/beige skirt, and knee high boots. You were listening to your ipod. You have shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes and easily the prettiest face I've seen on a subway platform.
There was some band in the background playing on the drums but I wasn't really listening to them because I was mostly looking at you.
I hope somehow you see this.
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Fuerza Bruta Sept 30 - m4w
Date: 2009-10-08, 3:32PM EDT
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
lánytestvér
Friday, October 09, 2009
killing time like its my job
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Argg where's me paperback?
This article got me thinking...
though it's still not quite a part of the mainstream, the ebook threatens to flip the business model for book publishing on its head. the internet has made it even more complicated, and has brought up the question that the journalism industry, torn between online and paper versions, with has been riddled with for years now: how to monetize?
Monday, October 05, 2009
an evanescent, velvety, vital, visceral vesper
At sunset I sit on my fire escape, reading and drinking a glass of wine. I love to sit here and look up and down the street. To my right, I can see pretty far past Little Italy into Chinatown. Left, I can almost see the Chrysler building, if I lean over a little bit. The scent of pizza wafts up, four stories high, to where I’m sitting. The smell is a familiar tease now; I’m as accustomed to it as I am to the smell of dog piss (though one is no doubt more appealing than the other). People pass under me in small groups, an occasional singing bicyclist zips past, but it’s quiet, mostly. Fall isn’t here yet, no. The trees are just barely tipped yellow; the breeze is only mild. I still see flip-flopped pedestrians walking their dogs. Kids still run around in the park without their coats. And—perhaps my most compelling piece of evidence—there aren’t any couples out. I watch the sun fall over trees and behind me. It feels like a dream. It was, once.
Today, my yoga instructor put us into Tree Pose (I guess she was feeling ambitious). As we struggled to get onto one foot and raise our hands over our heads, she said, “Feel for soft ground. You can always find your balance not from strength, but from soft ground.” Easier said than done, I thought. What the hell is “soft ground,” anyway? All I know in this town is hard: how to walk hard, work hard, be hard. I love that about this place. And that, I guess, was her point. In this Manhattan bubble, where we’re on go until our heads hit the pillow (note: I started to sleep so much better when I moved here), it’s easy to stay stimulated, occupied, elastic, stretching and stretching. Being as excitable and impatient as I am, the energy is intoxicating.
As it gets darker, the bars start to light up. Laughter gets louder from the dives across the street. The sound of after-work drinkers, pre-dinner cocktailers, or extra-early nightcappers—who will no doubt wake me hours from now—mixes with sirens. But for now, they’re just part of the hum of this city, tuning.
These evenings on my fire escape make up my foundation. This is where I find balance and peace above the horns and cries and calls of the city. This is why I love this place: I’m four stories up, and I’m on soft ground.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
shouldn't october be the eighth month of the year?
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Back in the U-S-A
Monday, August 10, 2009
Introducing Cat Contiguglia
READ
I'm just going to say, i am excited, proud, thrilled, amazed, but not surprised. definitely not surprised.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Last Day August 6
Today is my last day teaching. There is too much going on in my head. My feelings are contaminating eachother-- my happiness is mixed with sadness and my relief is mixed with anxiety, and everything is layerAed around a lump of excitement. I cannot believe this experience is over; the experience of teaching, that is. 2 months have felt like 2 years, but have also flown by. Its strange, because I almost cant grasp the fact that I did it. I feel like I will get back to New York and feel like it was another person who walked into a classroom full of kids that didnt speak any english and started to teach. It is surreal.
Its so cliché to say that this experience has changed my life, but it has. It has made more things possible to me than ever before. It has given me new kinds of courage. Because once you do something as ridiculous as live in rural Hungarian villages to teach English, a lot more feels possible.
I feel lucky beyond words. I have met such kind people on this journey. I have seen the loud, crazy, sometimes embarassing love that can flood a room so fast it feels suffocating; I have seen the quiet, steady love that trickles in like water from a leaky faucet, or a whisper between two lips. I have felt both kinds of love and now I know that they come from the same, buttery center. Theres a lot of metaphors in that paragraph, but if you cant use them all up when talking about love, then when can you?
Tomorrow morning I leave to go back to Budapest, the place where this all began. I can so vividly remember what it felt like, in the beginning, when this was all some crazy experiment that I chose to try out. I realize now that there never was a choice.
I love you girls. Ill see you in 2 weeks...
Foram
Monday, August 03, 2009
Just a few shots...
And, of course, Prague, Czech Republic
czeching out prague August 3, 2009
Im a little sleep deprived. after a crazy amazing two day stint in Prague, Im back to work. I cant believe ill be leaving here in 4 days. But ill leave that subject for another email entirely. this one is devoted to Prague (and dedicated to my dear friend and freshman roommate Vivian).
So. I dont even know where to begin. The whole 6 hour bus ride back, I tried to think of a good way to describe my experience in that incredible place...but still, im short of words.
Let me set up the situation for you girls, because you dont know the travel guide vivian compiled for me. i told her i was going to be in prague for the weekend with my friends over here, and asked her to send some suggestions my way since she lived there for a semester. i did not expect a 3 page guide, complete with detailed instructions of where to go, what to eat, and personal favorites. I forwarded the guide to my friends, who LOVED it. everyone printed out a copy. the very night we got into the city, we started wandering around, looking for the places vivian had suggested. "what does vivian say?" it became our mantra when we didnt know where to go next. we spent our weekend in prague faithfully following her guide, and because of that, i credit her for the amazing experience we had there.
prague is such an exquisite city. its almost cliche now to talk about how beautiful it is, but it has earned that cliche. the architecture is nothing less than arresting. the buildings, the roads, the feel of the city, forces you to walk slowly to soak it all in, because it really is surreal. it is exactly what i imagined europe to be like, and because of that, for two days it felt like i was in a dream. one big drunk dream. it is prague, after all, where beer is cheaper than water.
it was also so nice to be in a big, diverse city again. the greatest challenge here has probably been the monotony of language and people. im not saying authenticity doesnt have its charms-- of course it does-- but there is something really beautiful about cultural contamination, and, if i might refer to kwame anthony appia (thanks bryan waterman), something uniquely cosmopolitan about that too. and listen, i love visiting this slow life, but city girl needs the city. i almost peed my pants when i saw a black person, i was so happy.
vivian warned me about being mistaken for a gypsy in prague, which im sure is a problem in the off season, but in august its about as crowded with tourists as disneyland on a friday. i also have been dealing with the gypsy thing over here in slovakia, so i was aware of the issues with my skin color. i stick out like a sore thumb in rural slovakia. it was the same in hungary, but in my last village, everyone knew i was american before i got there, so i was treated with respect almost 100 percent of the time. Here, however, few people knew of my arrival, and slovakia is considerably less tolerant than hungary, for many reasons that are political and cultural and which we can talk about later. here, i have often been mistaken for a gypsy, which is a race that is highly discriminated against. so, here i have dealt with uncomfortable stares, rude remarks and generally soft racism. but racism nonetheless. im lucky that my american accent is so obvious, because it has saved me sometimes. when they realize im an american who just happens to not be white, they usually treat me much better. then they ask me questions and realize theres a lot they cant tell just by looking at me.
other times, people dont care that im american-- because of my coloring, i am a gypsy to them regardless, which i think is the epitome of hatred. there is nothing that can take a toll on your self-esteem more than being the "wrong" color. basically, i look exactly the way you wouldnt want to look living in slovakia. that has been difficult, to become self conscious about my outward appearance (having nothing to do with being pretty or thin) while developing and maturing on the inside...its a weird feeling, like being pulled in two different directions. wow, this email was not supposed to be about this ...its relevant, though, because in prague, i felt the relief of tolerance and regained a little bit of the confidence that was being rubbed away as my tan got darker and darker in the hot slovak sun.
we met some awesome people in prague. i met a very sweet Georgian during our pub crawl named bryan. of course, i go all the way to prague and kiss an american (an american with a girlfriend...eek....). but i cannot say no to a southern boy. it had been a while since someone had called me beautiful, and said with a southern twang, how could i resist?
we ate amazing food-- duck and potato croquettes, honey cake, pear juice--at vivians favorite restaurants. my favorite part of the trip was probably riding bikes around the city, across charles bridge, through the palace, and to the john lennon wall, which is this beautiful, grafitti-ridden wall that everyone writes on. i took my sharpie to it and made my own mark.on it, i wrote a quote from the little prince (of course): "has the sheep eaten the flower?"
i cant wait to show you guys pictures... im sure plenty of them will be up on facebook shortly. my friends are really good about putting them. as for me, ive got about 500 to put up and will do so when i get to budapest (in 3 days!! AH).
i love you girls
foram
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
can you say guyash party? July 27, 2009
week two over here in alsobodok. the first week went by surprisingly fast. it was difficult, but brief. definitely tested my emotions and grew me up just a little bit more. im hoping for the next two weeks to follow suit. thats not to say im not having a good time here. i am. i am making friends and my host family is really starting to open up to me. i think the difference between to two villages is mainly this: my first village liked me before they ever met me, which is why when i left, we were all at the love stage, already like family. this village, however, really didnt care about my being here for some good reasons...
1. this is the 7th year the village is hosting a volunteer, so its really not so novel that im here.
2. the mayor is kind of a prick and a bully. he never asked my host family if they wanted to host me, he basically just told my host sister one day that i was going to be staying with them for 3 weeks whether they liked it or not.
3. other people planted toxic preconceived notions in their heads. now that my family likes me so much, they feel its ok for them to laugh with me about all the stuff people told them about americans-- that we are spoiled and rude, demanding and thoughtless. my family really just expected me to be a monster, which i guess makes it easier to prove them wrong!
anyways, thats what i spent this past week doing-- breaking down the walls that they had put up. and i think its safe to say ive done it. this morning my host mother said i was part of the family. my host sister said i was like her sister. thats a big deal considering i look like a gypsy (i will explain in more detail when i get back)
on saturday we had a guyash party, which is basically the hungarian equivalent of grilling out. we all went up to the vineyard and made guyash outside. it was delicious, and many friends and family stopped by. on sunday, my host brother, a couple of other guys and i hiked up a few slovak mountains. it took 3 hours or so, but it was awesome. it was about time i got a real work out! this weekend im going to prague with the other volunteers. i am so excited. its my motivation for getting through the week!
to be honest, another thing i am learning is that i dont want to be a teacher. not that i dont love this program and the kids and the teaching, in fact, i think im pretty good at it. but it doesnt fulfill me the way i think a profession should. which brings me to my most recent discovery: the truest challenge comes when the enthusiasm runs out and you must rely solely on willpower to complete a task. i think this goes for most things. we cant be excited all the time about the endeavors we take on, but what shows us our strength is how we handle things after the honeymoon is over.
not that my honeymoon is over--far from it. in fact, i am still loving this, the traveling, the immersion. im already planning my journeys for the coming years. i ache for new york. i ache to see you girls and be a part of your adventures in our apple. its so good to hear about the magic that is happening in your lives, and i want too badly to be a part of it again. soon enough, though. its hard to believe that in 4 days I will be in prague. in 11 days i will be back in budapest. in 16 i will be in Cyprus. in 23 i will be in manhattan! what a life!i applied to my first job from abroad today. it was for an imprint of simon and schuster, the huge publishing house. it was such a thrill to write in my cover letter, "Currently, I am in rural Slovakia teaching English, creating and executing daily lesson plans and becoming acutely aware of the power of language." i hope i hear back from them. i plan on applying to as many jobs as i can while im over here. it will give me something to focus on and probably ease my transition back into reality. ok enough about me.
keep talking about you.
Friday, July 24, 2009
To my teacher, mentor and friend, Mrs. Kronstadt (Kman) July 24, 2009
Here I am, in my second Hungarian village. After 3 incredible weeks in Csatar, Hungary, I have landed in Alsobodok, a tiny village about an hour outside of Komarno. This has been quite the journey. I was thinking about you this morning while teaching my morning class, and decided i should write and see how you are... And, of course, talk about myself.
To catch you up: I started out with a brief 3-day orientation in Budapest, with the other volunteers in my program. Theres about 15 of us. Theyre from all over, but mostly Washington DC or California, mostly students at georgetown or stanford. What an amazing group. you know how they say that trauma can bond people? well we were all going through a common, "What the HELL am i doing?" phase, and we bonded pretty quickly. Needless to say, i have made lasting friends on this journey. It is intoxicating to be among such adventurous, curious, friendly, kind people. ive found my favorite way to ease fear is to lather up on the enthusiasm and with them theres plenty of that to go around!
anyways, after budapest, we were put on a train to western hungary, to a city called Zalaegerszeg. Zalaegerszeg is a "large" city of about 60,000, surrounding which many of us were stationed in nearby villages. I lived in a village of 500 called Csatar and taught just across the street in a village of 1100 called Bocfolde. I wish there was an easy way to describe my experience there without sucking dry a well of clichés. Yea, it changed my life. It made me see the world in a different way. it opened my eyes and i realized how similar and different we are from one another. it really did all those things. i was welcomed into these villages, chock-full of the most boisterous, jovial, excited men and women ive ever seen in one place. none of whom spoke a word of english. Well, thats not true-- there were two people in the village who spoke english, both were wonderful. but i had the most fun when i was with the people who knew none. i picked up some hungarian in those 3 weeks, and it got easier and easier to understand bits and pieces of the language.
i wish i could tell you everything i did in one email, but theres just too much. i wrote down all the things i did everyday, to make sure i would never forget, so maybe when i get you on the phone someday ill read off the milelong list. I met incredible people who became dear friends in too short a time. it broke my heart to leave them, but i had to come to my new village. so, after an elaborate dinner set up by the mayor, where a magazine came to write a profile on me (they promised to send me a copy), a tearful goodbye, and a five hour train ride, I was in Komarno. There, i met up with the other volunteers for a few days before heading to my new village. and now, here I am, in Alsobodok, a much more quiet village in Slovakia. this experience is very different from the one i had in Hungary, but i can just feel the courage from it seeping into my pores. and as homesick as i am for more places than i can count-- la, ny, and csatar--i hear you in my head saying, "if you do it once, youve done it, if you do it twice, you can do it," and i feel brave.
Thats not to say im ready to come home, because im not. besides, i have more stops to make before i fly back. So far, ive seen more than i have ever before. ive been to budapest, to rural hungary, to ljublana, slovenia (the other volunteers and i had a CRAZY day there...only when youre 21 can you rationalize traveling for 10 hours to party for 24!), and to komarno. next weekend i will be in prague, then the following weekend ill be back in budapest, and then ill be in cyprus for a week of glorious relaxation before heading back to my island. I have a 12 hour nighttime layover in london that i might spend running around the jolly ol town. By the time i return to my manhattan, on august 18, i will have stepped foot in 6 different countries, one of which I didnt know existed until 2 months ago (slovenia) and another whose language ive learned solely by way of immersion (hungary).
so here i am, satisfying my curiosity and learning the ways of these people. there is so much more to talk about, and i cant wait to tell you more about it. is there any chance youll be in new york in the fall? im thinking about coming back to la for a little bit, but i have to find a job first--thats another thing im devoting my free time to while im over here. The Job Hunt. yuck. I figure this is a good time to apply, while i sit here on the other side of the world, feeling brave, seeing what else i can do.
i love you, kman.
foram
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Also, Alsobodok July 20, 2009
I am in a new village again, just as i was beginning to call csatar home. and to be honest, my heart is a little bit broken. i am homesick for more places than i can count, for more people than i can count. I dont want to be a cry baby, so ill tell you more about it in person, when it doesnt ache so much. this village is very different so imtrying to adjust as quickly as possible. here are some good things about it:
1. my host sister speaks some english!
2. i live in the house with the family, so i get to spend more time with them
3. there is a tv with AMERICAN channels! man, i love cnn.
4. my host mother cooks great food
5. i get to walk to school, so maybe i can work off the massiveamounts of food i ate the past 3 weeks
6. i get to make my own class programs, so im actually only teachingfor 2.5 hours a day... the problem with that is i have a lot ofdowntime...
7. the people are very kind.
i really hope i make friends here. the people are not as enthusiastic as my first village. i think i got really spoiled the first time around. i hope this time flies by. and i hope i stop feeling so sad,because too much downtime means i have more time to think about you girls. i am trying to keep my heart open, but its hard because i want to keep some special places locked up-- the spaces i keep for new york, for la, and now for csatar and bocfolde. I feel childish, but part of me doesnt want to love this place, because if i love this place more, maybe i love csatar a little less. does anyone have a recipe for new love? that way maybe i can have enough to go around.
lovelovelove
foram
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Village 1: Complete July 16, 2009
love
foram
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Csak keks, nem szex July 14, 2009
i love you all so much
foram
Friday, July 10, 2009
sceretlek July 10
hi pigeon i just wanted to say hi. i was thinking about something lately and i thought i might talk to you because, really, who else would i tell? so here goes...
being here has taught me so much about what it is like to be an immigrant. i mean, it pales in comparison, because of course, immigrants to a new country do not have a village waiting for them with love and food and fun. but on a very basic level, when it comes to leaving every single thing i have ever known to go to a place where everything is new and uncomfortable, i feel like an immigrant. I didnt even know how to say yes (igen) or no (nem) before I came here...and thats scary to think about now. i think of my parents, who knew enough english to get by but knew less about american culture, and how they managed to become fluent in a language, fluent in an economic and social environment, and fluent in the constant reminder that they are in a land so far away from home. i think i took that for granted for a long time...for my whole life, really. now, i am grateful to them for leaving a place i have seen riddled with social and economic injustice to take me somewhere where I am part of a cultural playground. in india my life would have been radically different--that goes without saying. but what is startling to me is that i was so close to that life. i was just a single generation away from being born and raised there, and probably would have had to do what my mother and father did--move away to another continent forever-- in order to live the life i wanted. Here, in hungary, where i could be easily mistaken for a gypsy, i might as well be a black woman in alabama in 1964. but in the us, im one of millions of indians who are successful, who are welcomed, and who contribute to the life and flavor of american culture. thats amazing. i feel so lucky to have the luxury of taking diversity, good coffee and wifi for granted. i feel so lucky to have been raised just a few steps away from an amazing burrito, an otherwordly falafel, and my moms authentic indian cooking. i can walk down the street and hear french, chinese, spanish and english in a matter of blocks: that is beautiful. and i am learning now that that is uniquely american. and i guess it all sounds a little cliche, but i think i can say... im proud to be an american (cue music).Sylvia plath once said, "Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I've taken for granted." I think this is why my heart calls to me so ferociously, and why i cannot dismiss it, no matter how hard i try: because i want to become acutely aware. because this might be the overriding theme of my life. i hope it is.
love
chicken.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
zűld fa July 8, 2009
hello loverheadsssss
you are such glorious creatures. i love that you are happy and well and taking care of our city while i am away. i must admit, i am beginning to feel the early pangs of homesickness, which is what i was expecting around the 2 week mark (and like clockwork, here it is..). its alright, i only feel it in the moments i am alone and in the quiet, not preparing a lesson plan or trying to learn a hungarian word or eating delicious fresh food, or oggling cute hungarian men. even then, all i need to do is look through some pictures of my kids or the other volunteers or dig through my pocket and find one of the many sweet notes my host sister leaves me, and the feeling subsides. yesterday i taught my intermediate class about the superbowl and american football and then we went outside and played it. funnnnnn. today i am going to teach them a song, and im still deciding between the beatles, beyonce or michael jackson. i think im going to go with mj as a tribute. this week, ive been going to dinner at my students' houses and talking with them one on one. i think thats the most valuable way to teach them, just by talking to them alone. in the class, everyone is on different levels and you can only learn so much. but one on one, they feel more free to ask me questions and to tell me about themselves. last night one of the teachers (the same one who crushed a lemon leaf into my hand) took me into zalaegerszeg, the city, and took me shopping. it was really nice. we got ice cream and she showed me around...and we communicated with my little hungarian and her little english. it was great. i cant believe the second week is almost over. it is hard to believe that i will be leaving this village, where i already feel like i have been forever. at the same time, one week feels like one month when the sun is already up when i rise at 7am and sets well after 9pm. i dont get much rest these days, but i feel awake all the time, even when i am so tired i cant sleep. i feel alive in a different way-- the energy i feel comes only from me, not from the momentum of my environment, because life is so simple and slow here. i think because of that simplicity, people are happier. everyone says hello to one another, stranger or not. if someone needs a ride, you open your car door. even kids have a different sense of obligation here. every morning, by the time ive woken up, my host brother and sister have already made and eaten breakfast and are helping out at the orchard or the vineyard. and at the dance camp, i noticed that the children were always taken care of by the teens. the teenage boys did all the dishes--piles and piles of them-- after every meal. it wasnt even asked of them, it was just something they knew they should do. when a child needed a place to sit, he could always crawl onto someones lap without hesitation. it is so nice to see people taking care of one another. that kind of love, the kind that is so effortless and natural that it goes unacknowledged, is pretty amazing to see and to feel.
speaking of which, i love you, effortlessly and naturally!
foram
effélététem July 6, 2009
i love you.
foram
Kusonom, Scivesen! July 1, 2009
i love you all, i miss you all.
pussy (that means "kisses." i know.)
Foram
I'm Hungary. Not Thirsty. June 29, 2009
love love love
foram
i am alive, i am alive!
In fact, I am still out of the country. So, instead of blogging and trying to catch up, I am going to post the emails I have sent to my dearest friends. For the time being, consider this an epistolary blog.
But first, a little background: I am in rural Hungary teaching English. I applied to the program back in January, was accepted, and left in June to this country, my first time in Europe. It is amazing!
Friday, June 05, 2009
Do Something
When Maggie graduated high school, her parents let her take a year off to backpack through Southeast Asia... and she never came back.
Instead, she wound up in Nepal. While traveling through the region, she witnessed the terrible toll that war and corruption had taken on Nepali children; the country was full of orphans. So what did then- 18-year old Doyne do? She called up her parents in Jersey and asked them to wire over her life savings-- $5,000 in babysitting money. She knew 5 grand could go a long way over there... and it did. Doyne built the Kopila Valley Children's Home in Nepal and now, at 22, is the guardian of 24 orphans, has sent 60 kids to school and has placed 700 orphans in homes.
Can you believe it?
I didn't, until I saw Maggie Doyne accept $100,000, at the Do Something awards last night at the Apollo Theatre. I didn't, until I saw her cry when a picture of a dozen or so Nepali orphans flashed across the screen and she said, "I promised myself I wasn't going to lose it...but then I saw my kids up there..."
my kids.
22, mother of 24. I'm 21 and can hardly take care of myself. As she stood there on the stage, this totally unassuming, petite, fair-skinned blonde was surrounded by a spotlight that formed a sort of halo around her thin frame. I thought to myself, This is what an angel looks like.
She kept saying how humbled she felt, to be the recipient of such an enormous sum, to be selected out of a group of such deserving, accomplished candidates. Humbled? Really? (Humble: from the Latin, humilis, meaning low, from humus, meaning earth. In a sense, to bring one back down to earth, to plant one's feet back to the ground where you started; back to when you were just a seed in a pile of dirt). I sat there thinking, I'm the one who's humbled. What the hell have I done? Granted, circumstance, personal choice and so many other things (chance, fate, karma?) have so much to do with why she plays mom and why I just play. And then she said:
"It all starts with a yes."
Every true act of compassion, courage, love, service starts with a yes, despite the misgivings and qualms that come with most acts of honesty. You've got to start from the ground up. And here I am, thinking that a quarter of my life is already over, and I've already experienced most of the Big Moments that will punctuate my personal history...but maybe I'm still a seed. Maybe all this time where I thought I was growing and branching out, I've only been sprouting, stretching, warming up. I'm not saying that one day I'll run off to a foreign country to save the children. But there's no time limit to the call of your heart. So in the meantime, I'll be here, listening.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Ain't just a river in Egypt!
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
this is considerably less zen
Saturday, May 30, 2009
have some chai when you read this.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
im here, hello
I've been negligent. For that, I'm sorry. So much has happened in the past week: Nami and I got the keys to our place (it's official, we have an apartment). Finals FINALLY ended! Meanwhile coping with brief episodes of anxiety attacks about graduation (it comes in waves, I tell ya). Meanwhile coping with my mother in town (she's a handful, I tell ya). I can tell you one thing I haven't been doing-- Sleeping. So, in the midst of all the glamour of packing and cleaning bathrooms and sweeping floors and writing papers by day and painting the town red by night, my secrets have been more in my head than out in the air. But I wanted to stop and say hi. I miss you. Do you miss me?
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
My new place
Monday, May 04, 2009
I'm still here
Friday, May 01, 2009
I think you're an asshole, no lie.
Case Study: “I Think You’re Fat” By A.J. Jacobs
The Writer: Raised in Manhattan, A.J. Jacobs is the editor-at-large for Esquire Magazine and the author of two books. He might be best known for his month-long self-imposed experiments, which are the subjects of most of his writing. He has also written for the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and New York Magazine. In his first novel, The Know-It-All, Jacobs chronicles his quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, cover to cover. His second book, A Year of Living Biblically, tracks his year of trying to live literally by the every single rule in the Bible. He continues what he describes as “experiential journalism” with his new book, The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment (2009).
The Story: It was during his research for A Year of Living Biblically that Jacobs stumbled upon another story idea. While browsing the Internet, Jacobs ran a search on “honesty” in a search engine. “And up popped an article about a guy running for Congress in Virginia who refused to lie,” Jacobs said. That guy running for congress was a man named Brad Blanton. The more Jacobs read, the more interested he became. Blanton would become Jacobs’ truth mentor. Blanton’s movement was dubbed as Radical Honesty—a lifestyle that dares the practitioner to speak exactly what is on his mind at the exact moment that the thought occurs to him. Blanton’s book, also titled Radical Honesty, promises to “change your life by telling the truth.” Intrigued by the challenge, Jacobs decided he would try to give Radical Honesty a shot, and traveled down to Florida to experience Blanton for himself.
The Reporting: After spending a long day with Blanton, observing him and documenting his reactions to the people around him, Jacobs returned to New York to try Radical Honesty himself. Most of the research and reporting in his piece go hand-in-hand; in experiential journalism reporting and research occur simultaneously. He lived Radically Honest for a few weeks—less than his usual month-long endeavors. Jacobs writes about the highs and lows of being totally—brutally—honest.
The Writing: The article is written Radically Honestly, complete with parenthetical candor as well as straightforward statements of opinion. When it came to describing Blanton, Jacobs didn’t have to worry too much about misrepresenting him. “I was lucky because his quotes speak for himself,” Jacobs said. “[Blanton] says such outrageous things... That doesn't happen too often, sadly.” So Jacobs relied mostly on Blanton’s quotes, “…and on his gestures,” Jacobs said, “like picking his nose and spitting.” After two or three drafts, neither radically different from its original form, according to Jacobs, the article was complete.
During the drafting process, a conflict arose between Jacobs and his editor: Editor wanted to remove a section in his article about the implications of Radical Honesty on an ever-invasive environment of technology and social networking. “He wanted to take it out. I wanted to keep it,” Jacobs said. “We compromised by having him write ‘Bullshit -- Ed.’ at the end of the section.”
{Below is the excerpt from the article}:
“Now, my editor thinks I'm overreaching here and trying too hard to justify this article's existence, but I think society is speeding toward its own version of Radical Honesty. The truth of our lives is increasingly being exposed, both voluntarily (MySpace pages, transparent business transactions) and involuntarily. (See Gonzales and Google, or ask Alec Baldwin.) For better or worse, we may all soon be Brad Blantons. I need to be prepared. [Such bullshit. -- Ed.]”
An inadvertent moment of brutal honesty occurred during Jacobs’ writing process but was cut out due to space constraints (I wish it hadn’t been). Says Jacobs: “I asked for help transcribing the interview tapes from an Esquire intern (we only had female interns at the time). Which was humiliating in it’s own right, because [Blanton] said so many offensive things. And then, to make matters worse, the intern reported that I forgot to turn off the tape recorder while taking a pee. Three times. She had to listen to me go to the bathroom.”