(Nairobi, Kenya)
Dear reader, hello! And I am in Kenya now. And already have some mixed feelings about how to communicate with the people I want to keep informed while I’m here.
And this is why!
Something feels wrong having travelled for 27 hours to the opposite side of the world, and then immediately “connecting” to the internet from a Nairobi hotel room. The wrongness is in the easiness I think. It’s too easy for our own good. Why? Because it’s tempting to live and act as if I am not gone. But I am. Hence, another little dichotomy/fracture in the attempt to live wholly. How am I supposed to commit to being here as I type this blog which HAS NO PLACE?
Flannery O’Connor once wrote that “being somewhere is better than being anywhere.”
I want to feel like I’m somewhere as remote as the place I really am – I want to feel like there is a painful distance between me and my wife that will be resolved in 13 days.
I’m not sure I can really communicate this idea over a blog that will be instantaneously available in just a few minutes. A tension of intentions to be sure (wanting to “reach out” and “connect” and be “close” – rife with spacial metaphor, eh!?).
Oh Whole!, resolve our inconsistencies and fix our fractures. Connect us. Bring us close. Advance us from mere metaphor to reality.
Is this medium effective for such a plea? Do You hear and respect this message? For it shall self-destruct in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
This from a woman who used to work at gawker.com:
Though Gawker’s bloggers often worked from home, I went to the office every day at first…I figured that we’d be able to express ourselves more easily by actually turning to each other and speaking words and making facial expressions rather than typing instant messages. But because we were so busy, we continued to I.M. most of the time, even when we were sitting right next to each other.”
Only tangentially related to your point, but echoes it nonetheless.
I am glad you arrived safely in Nairobi with the team from Regen.
It is amazing how you are across the world and you are able to access your blog. Consider this thought, through the advancement in technology your wife can contact you to see how you are doing. You are making a difference in the lives of the children in Kenya and the people on your team. God bless you and I am praying for you.