Finding Me

It’s a good song by Vertical Horizon. It’s also a hot topic around the monastery.

So apparently there has been some hush hush chatter in the monastery about the ninja-likeness (Eric I can’t believe I used that word, and I will punish you accordingly when I get home for ever putting it into my vocabulary) with which I move around. Yes, believe it or not most of the time there are very few people, if any, who know where I am. And if they do, the knowledge is only good for a short period of time. For the most part it’s rather harmless as seeing that I am usually at visiting students, photographing, drinking Tchuc with the locals, or wondering around. Not that it’s was a bad thing last week when people noticed that Colin and I weren’t at 3 consecutive meals, but spontaneity is my middle name, right behind danger, stupid, lucky, jump before you look, pissin’ in the wind, ninja (double that punishment Eric), and invincible.

It’s not to hard to see how this came about either considering the do first and play ignorant/apologize later mentality that has been grilled into me by life and SJU in particular. And if none call me out on it, I keep on truckin’. This philosophy works really well (or poorly) in the do anything at all costs to avoid a negative confrontation with Greg society. And I am not trying to be self-appreciating here; even the top guys put on a front in front of me (hehe). I get to hear about everything from Colin who gets the still very non-confrontational talks from the monks who hint at the inner workings of the monastery. I think I scare people.

But seriously, there is no way in hell that someone is going to be able to keep tabs on me. I can’t even do that! If I had to let someone know where I was going all of the time, I wouldn’t make it anywhere. To use another song (what have you learned – carbon leaf) “you’re like a butterfly on a windy day, you use directions in round’about ways.” The scenic route is my short cut and gets me where I am going every time. But I do now have monks asking me a plethora of questions whenever I look like I am going somewhere; that’s about as close to keeping up with someone who doesn’t ever really know where he is going as they are going to get unless they are right there with me (which is where some of the monks find themselves occasionally).