of sociology and elephants

Two weeks in a vast circle around Chile and Argentina: finito.
No major physical injuries to claim, save one nasty bruise on my elbow- souvenir of my trekking mishap…but my mind seems to have come away spinning round on a sickening speed setting. I’ve spent the past two weeks with these major themes constantly in conversation:
Travel. Drugs. Faith.
And another constant “philosophy” being brought up as I finally convinced Sean to read Eat.Pray.Love. has been present- this idea of studying, exploration, purposeful discovery and searching, creativity…
This idea of finding self, reclaiming, redefining, accepting, moving with open arms, opening a third eye…

So all that this trip has left me with, I suppose, is a desire for exploration- a rekindled fire to ever move FORWARD, ever question, ever learn. And in light of all the more recent discussions of faith- this rebirth of an insatiable need to learn and seek has set itself ablaze within me. This burning to hear stories, philosophies, seek understanding, question the methods and prayers and practices of Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism… just this desire for a full grasp on the world, a looser tongue with which to communicate with all the members of this world.
I crave understanding, context, example and a refuge in which to ask questions, debate, study, read and learn (maybe this is just the post-graduate panic setting in to my Nerd brain).

I know a lot of people in my life may interpret this as some lunacy new-age bullshit quest exposing me to the snares of conversion. Not so. I’m not quitting my job to go pet elephants from an ashram window in the slums of India, and I’m not going to go out and purchase all of the “spiritual” guidebooks in Oprah’s section of Barnes and Noble.( I did, however, pick up a collection of poems by Rumi and dust off my yoga-mat)
My mind is sound, albeit restless and hungry. As a sociologist I have been trained to reject complacency and stillness in my knowledge. I demand an environment with a constant influx of information, varying opinions, theories, stories, beliefs to feed into my common dialogue and thought process. I need to ask questions and experience and read just as much as I need to breathe. I need communication, I need to be challenged, I need to seek- lest I fall to fat ignorance for standing still too long in the same place of comfort and reasonable thinking lending itself to laziness and limited understanding of a world that is so vast.

I don’t know where the compass points next for this journey, though. Maybe India, maybe the Swiss Alps, maybe Lynn, Massachusetts. I have no idea, but I’m ready. My eyes are open and I even have a new pair of tortoise shell reading glasses- all the better to see you with, my dear. So pass me the cloak and the basket of bread and it’s over the river and through the woods, to wherever the winds may blow.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.”
-Rumi