Wastebooks; Happy New Year

Hey Everyone! Happy new year.

I spent about 5 days last week on an organic mini-farm about 2 hours outside of Buenos Aires, near the town of Canuelas. My girlfriend Chris has been volunteering on the farm for over a month now, and so I partly volunteered with her, partly celebrated the new year with the friends and family of the owners (Matias, Mariana and Juan = great people), and partly monopolized the lone hammock with neither remorse nor shame. Some might have referred to me as a green tyrant. As far as celebrations go, it all felt very familiar.

So, during these 'hammock sessions,' amongst other things (like being harassed by small Argentines, i.e. children) I went through my stack of 'wastebooks' from 2010. This term was forced upon me by my good friend Andrew "el tigre" Meeks, and refers to the small notebooks I always carry in my back right pocket. I jot down names, places, movies, books, ideas bright both mine and other, funny thoughts, spanish words I don't know, questions, et al. eh. My sister sometimes asks what I write down, and in her honor I thought it might be interesting to share some entries from 2010: (in quotes are unabridged entries)

• Kindness often goes unnoticed, whereas unkindness is often loud and memorable. This unfortunately creates the illusion of less kindness in the world. (This thought dawned on me on a bus in Bolivia as a way of coping with the non-courteous man behind me who had taken of his shoes...and they stank!)
  
• "how will my life change if I walk slower?"
• Living uncritically is to commit to an absolute meaning, i.e. a truth. I don't think truth in meaning exists. Therefore, my Dad should try beer again.
  
• When talking about lucid dreaming, I should casually tell people that during my lucid dreams I typically give haircuts to middle aged prison inmates (lucid dreaming refers to knowing you are in a dream and controlling it)
• "Is the difference between art and science the presumption of subjectivity?"
• I should start sentences with "My preferred interpretation...."
• "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance....it is the illusion of knowledge" -Stephen Hawking
• Soccer is not futbol. Translation is impossible. (a truth claim!)
  

Although I don't believe translation is possible, I also noted some interesting insights discovered by comparing english-spanish translations. My favorite example is with the word Protestante, which of course means 'Protestant.' Somehow I never realized it stems from "protest" and only when it translated to me as "protester" in Spanish did it hit me. Ah, right...protest and then reform, got it. Learning another language is illuminating in so many ways.

Alright, that's it. As you can see I reflect a lot on language, knowledge and philosophy in general. "Great Matt that's great." But maybe this is not surprising. This theme on objectivity/subjectivity and universals stems from constant study and interaction with the strong and often confident ideas of others......not to mention the fact that I am living abroad and in daily interaction with different paradigms and ways of life. This skepticism feels healthy and I like it. It feels good and necessary.

In other news, I have finished my coursework for the master's program and am now on to thesis investigation and writing!! Many highlights to share from this great year....I'll save those for an upcoming blog.

Soon I'll post on a common experience I have had here in Argentina: "y bueno Matt, que te parecen los argentinos??"

Hasta prontito ches!!