“Alas," said the mouse, "the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into." "You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up. - Franz Kafka's "A Little Fable"
On
August 31st I will fly to Morocco and spend a semester there with
SIT (School for International Training) Study Abroad. The program focuses on
journalism and new media studies and culminates in a four week, independent
study during which I will be expected to produce a polished, full-length piece
of journalism. While abroad, I will be living with a Moroccan family, getting a
first hand look at what everyday life is like. I can only imagine the
challenges that await me; vast differences in language, religion, and culture will be just a few of
many things to overcome.
I
hope to accomplish three things with this blog. 1) Keep those who are
interested informed on what I have been up to. 2) Use it as a journal of sorts
so I can look back and remember things from earlier in the trip. 3) Help me
figure out what I am going to write about when I am asked to produce my piece
of journalism. If I post something that particularly interests you, please
leave a comment or send me an e-mail as I believe that will be immensely helpful
in accomplishing number 3. I will try to keep the blog fairly up-to-date but
this will obviously be dependent on access to Internet and how much time I have
to write.
Now,
you may be wondering what Kafka’s story has to do with any of this. I figured
that, since I’m not actually in Morocco yet and thus don’t really have much to
say about it, I could go on a bit of a rant about life and hopes and dreams. I
think the main point Kafka makes is that life grants us infinite possibilities
to explore and a finite amount of time to do it in. If the mouse hadn’t been so
fearful, if it hadn’t simply sprinted straight through the wild world that lay
around it and instead explored and learned and created, eventually the walls would
still have begun to narrow, the end of it’s life was inevitable. The cat isn’t
trying to give false hope to the mouse before consuming it, instead he is
breaking the horrific news that the opportunity to change direction and
discover, before arriving in that final chamber, is now lost.
Some
people live life just like the mouse, failing to explore the people and places
and feelings that are offered to us everyday. Others might zig-zag through
life, bouncing from one stage to the next but without any reflection on the
past, unable to learn and grow from their successes and failures. Other lives
may take the shape of waves, circles, or just a string of disconnected dots;
because the possibilities in life are endless, the shape our lives can take are
infinite as well.
The
trip I am about to depart on has made me think quite a bit about what I have
already experienced in my life and what lies ahead of me. How do I want to
interact with my past while continuing to move forward? The story makes me
think about how I hope my life takes the shape of a spiral. Of course, it’s not
going to be perfect, there have already been breaks and bumps and scribbles on
this road and there will certainly be more. But it’s the basic shape I’m going
for, starting on the outside and moving towards the center, some center,
constantly in new places but always surrounded and supported by the past. I can
carry what I love with me: people, places, traditions, hobbies. And I can leave
behind the rest, perhaps smiling and waving at them years later as I pass, a
bit closer to that inevitable center than where I was when I said goodbye. And
as I near that center, I will be able to look around and witness the circle-y
sea I’ve created and there everything will be, my life, my experiences, laughing
and dancing and wildly cheering me on as I get closer and closer. I know that
Morocco and the experiences I write about on this blog will be one of those
rings. And when I’m face to face with the center of my spiral, I’ll be on a
beach in the South Pacific, drinking Mai Tais watered down by the melting sun
and there everything that brought me to that place will be, emanating out from where I lie like Saturn and
her rings.
But,
alas, that’s just a hope. Please check back and see what I’ve been up to. Until
next time.
