abstracts from argentina, chapter 1

So. I´m in Argentina, and more or less anonymous. Much like America, Argentina is full of a wide array of colors, ethnicity's, accents, and traditions. It is has been quite the change from the last time I travelled, where hoards of children would chant (wazungu, white person) as I walked along the train tracks. Here people ask me for directions...(which is hilarious to the same degree, in which my spanish is hilarious). After taking a single day in Buenos Aires, a huge city full of character and apparent history - truly the Paris of South America, I took a night bus to Bariloche - a spectacular exhibition of what God can really do - to meet Joel, Lewis, and Christy. (by the by you should go to christyandlewis.wordpress.com read some wonderful, descriptive writing about these places) If you have not met these kids you should. Joel Wenger is astounding; he is uninhibited in his honesty and intentional about his celebration, while Lewis and Christy are two walking inspirations, absolutely meticulous in loving both the world around them and each other. Now, south of Bariloche in a small, hippy´ish town called El Bolson (which so far I think means big bag...), things have been wonderful. The days are full of hiking, reading, writing, spanish, and endless conversations attempting to elucidate the worlds mysterious on how one should live. Having just returned from a three day camping trip up one of the surrounding valleys I feel full of calm and contentment. While camping Lewis, Joel and I took a day to hike up to the Alerssas Forrest. This rocked my world, filling me with all sorts of thoughts about our world. Some of these were 15 feet across. I wanted them to speak truths of the birth of humanity and tell me tales of when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Thus far I felt many freedoms here, in Argentina, I have not felt in a long time. And through seeing so much new I have felt so much new in myself. Byinlarge this trip has been quiet, filled with solemn mornings and piercing questions, staying up late discussing what I believe, and then even later to read or write about it. I have already felt so much in just two weeks. I have been laughing and playing hard no doubt, and yet have found an abundance of things to keep my thoughts and feelings on overdrive. The time now is for reflection, calm of spirit, happiness only when justified by the purest of joys. In all sincerity now l want to live, looking inward as to know what is coming forward. I wish to never again attempt to look ahead into the fog of the future, a fruitless endeavor really, we have now this moment and no more. Tall gates, insurmountable in their height and uncaring in their strength, guard the roads leading to the past and the future. We are left only with our ability to guess at the future, or claim vague truths we access through that weak and unreliable device called memory. I should look now to my heart for that will determine my feet, and thus my future. And so now I travel, because to travel is to seek, to search, to look around at everything you have never seen before and find it makes you new as well. It makes you what you cannot be at home because at home you believe your image, the image assigned to you by family, friends, and social context. You believe you are what everyone thinks you are, and what travelling does is take all that away. You are left with an undetermined self -¨as far as the world is concerned. Immediately, as you speak and walk, conveying some particular style, you become more determined by the world, but the beauty of travel is you have the freedom of choosing yourself without the fear of being told: "that´s not you" or "that doesn´t suit you." And it is in these comments that we begin to draw ourselves back into something more reserved or expected of us. It should be mentioned that it is our friends and community that keep us accountable for our progress and integrity (vagabonding indefinitely frees us from any visible community, and thus in many ways frees us from from growth). So as we integrate the two we mitigate stable community with travel, and travel with stable community. I think the two can compliment each other in the best ways. But if we build a sulaphane layer composed of what people have come to expect, protecting us from having the expectation to change, then we miss a life lived in submission to the consequences of the heart; in other words, we sometimes get so caught up in what is expected of us we forget to grow into that which we could never expect. It is the heart that speaks to the feet and hands, urging movement from desire. It is the sound within, the thing that wishes to change things for the better. It is the thing full of desire given to us as a gift. I hope as this time of travelling unfolds for me I can be accountable to the good things in me, and be transformed unexpectedly.

much love.
phil.

Eric.
Good to hear you have been chilling with the BS and that you and It havent already forgetten me.

Nathan.
Sweet to hear from you. Um yeah it was a bit odd. Election day here in El Bolson was absolutely calm. People either say the whole thing is corrupt and ridiculous, or do not really care one way or another. On an interesting note you get fined if you do not vote here, it is compulsory.

The Levridge.
I am enjoying the no cell phone currently, and I have to say their is defenitely something to be said for not having that damned thing in my pocket 24/7. However, it is still odd how sometimes I think my pocket is vibrating. Anyway, I hope you are doing well and make it out of bed for some solid BS in the future.

Kaettie.
No worries, a round of hugs for all.

Deja.
Sounds so insane-busy to deal with all that meat. It sounds like it is sweet for you, and helping those omnivores around you to live more consciously. Good luck with the officiating and technologizing.