A Meditation on Humanizing Mankind

Pictures by J. 
 Dear, you rock all the way to the edge of your stem cells. Happy birthday to you as well and I wish for you all that you wish for.

Happy birthday Senator Fulbright, your gift keeps on giving, your legacy instills all of us with awe and commitment, your ideology has a cancerous behavior with a viral outreach. Long may your memory endure.

"Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations. Man's capacity for decent behavior seems to vary directly with his perception of others as individual humans with human motives and feelings, whereas his capacity for barbarism seems related to his perception of an adversary in abstract terms, as the embodiment, that is, of some evil design or ideology." [Speech to the Council on International Educational Exchange, 1983]

 "International educational exchange is the most significant current project designed to continue the process of humanizing mankind to the point, we would hope, that men can learn to live in peace--eventually even to cooperate in constructive activities rather than compete in a mindless contest of mutual destruction....We must try to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy and perception, and there is no way of doing that except through education." [From remarks on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Fulbright Program, 1976]

This week-end has been fruitful in all kinds of celebrations, food, laughter, and conversations: a versatile meditation over our own passage through the U.S. from rich souls of different perspectives, different majors, different countries, sharing passionate tendencies and commitment overdrive and the audacity to stand by ideas and concepts, live by them and fight for them.

Among the intimate exchanges we shared, the one D. and I were hung on was the human condition: perhaps, it's PhD in philosophy, perhaps it's the sewers of humankind where we delve in, perhaps it's Z. psychological and gender studies, but it was a long meditation over what it meant to be human, and when one answers to such a title: All of us have had our fair share of human interactions in this country and witnessing and living through alienating episodes or humbling ones, and so we were discussing the difference between when a biped is more of a puppet than a social animal, when a social animal is more of a creature of mind than a self-aware life form, when a self-aware life form is more of a bundle of thoughts and emotions than a consciousness able to react, assess and process and grow, and when... and when, and when...

There is no end to it, there is a feel to it though. It will take more writing, so much more writing Senator, so much more coffee, exchange, experiences. It will take more lifetimes. I am grateful nonetheless. There is a lot of personal stake on the Fulbright legacy on an intricate scale and every time, I rediscover it and find out it grew and unraveled some more and it instills in me a terrible and fascinating sense of inner awareness.

Good-bye Fay, you've been a soothing limbo

I miss these three so so much already. Please guys, keep on shining and pursuing your quests, keep on working for the advancement of yourselves and the species. I wish you never grow old.

I wish we meet again. I will see to it. Let's do it over and over again.

Echoes of Conversations II : When we are together

...And they are done with most of the bottles, and the conversations are filled with laughter, passion, knowledge, insight, inside jokes and hilarious or sad stories.

Suddenly, your head is mindfucked, and filled with plenty. So much to process, to go through over again. So much dreamed of.

 -"When I start my PhD, I will make a home out of my place, and I hope I will get to decorate it with these."

-"J., my dear, I will bring you one but it'll be a rat dipped in sulfate copper."

-"It won't latch, you need an exoskeleton"

 Problem solved. Although, it's a rabbit. I'm sure I can get him a rat.

-"Very few scientific organizations are allowed to work with defective fertilized cells."

-"Social sciences are heavily involved in biology and other disciplines of STEM. Ethics are not luxury of the people living in a moral bubble, they are additional restrictions that push us to aim harder, work more and have more awareness and respect of precious resources that we can never give back, that is life and time, joy and lack of pain.

-"I'd sacrifice one person for the sake of 500"

-"But to spare 500 of what? If we consider sufferance as a compulsory parameter of the human condition and its management an undeniable condition to pretend to be a human being, you will be technically depriving 500 people of their right to claim more humanity."

-"There is no guarantee 500 people dealing with pain will grow out of it. The social animal will always escape sufferance by any leisure means available, whether they are harmful to his body or the other parts of his being or not."

-"With the kind of lack of awareness and self-reflection and looking for the easy way for anything that is predominating the vox populis culture, I would not be surprised that the spared 500 will not only not grow out of their sufferance, but they themselves will become a source of disease to others from the lack of healing and the absence of self-reflection and acceptance of pain.

-Hence, my point: I'll sacrifice one to spare the world 500 new diseases.

-Spare the world? Bitch please, more social animals to feed on it with gluttony is not what I would describe as sparing the world.

-When one piece of the cohesive identity is getting attacked, ego switches to it and the person chooses to become defined by it: if your religious group is getting the heat, you identify more as part of this community and strive to show it through your immediate choices and acts. You forget the other parts of your cohesive identity and focus solely on this part, paradoxically enough drowning your own identity into one adjective, one robotic feature, one cliche. It can be more though, more pieces of your identity getting heat from the outside as interpreted by your mind and therefore your ego focusing solely on them.
-You end up with an ego consuming you and a linear image of the self you used to have before burying it deep inside.
-The ego doesn't consume so much as it becomes more stupid. It's not irreversible though. The rehabilitation of brainwashed and PTSD patients is not far-fetched. The issue is to focus on the ego instead of the mind: convincing this entity that strives to be an individual while being part of a group and being idolized and loved that it's not threatened by change is difficult. The ego is very fragile and will do anything to stay as granitic as possible. It doesn't help when the mind is not in collaboration either and the personal worth is not of balance in aspect to these other components...
-What about instilling the mind with the quest of the higher s..."
-K. I'm done with philosophy, f*** I just want to graduate, have a 9-5 pm job and feel like going through the motion of life without thinking of every aspect of this bitch.
-He killed you man.
-He killed the sonofacunt.

Salt Lake City

I was there for few days to attend an enrichment seminar. Some of the conferences were amazing and the city turned out to be gorgeous.
My sole complain is the time spent visiting the olympic winter parc: I get that it may be a big deal here but as I have no interest in winter sports, let alone winter olympics, even less 2002 winter olympics, I would have used that afternoon for visiting the city more and going around in hikes, given how the architecture and nature were mesmerizing but that we weren't given any free time in the mornings and two hours at best in the afternoon, that I spent resting and working on my thesis anyway.
Gosh, everytime I intend to make the best out of my next seminar and everytime, I have unexpected circumstances to tackle or new destinations to go.
But hey, I wasn't paying and I'm thankful for the opportunity all in all.

Most of our conferences took place in this building, within the university of Utah

Incredible Hiking spots, almost reminded me of Czech Republic hills

Overview on the university, a hike ten minutes away from the university

Temple Square

Gala diner, in Capitol of Utah

Opening diner, Natural History Museum

Fulbright Pack for the week

Hehe, to my left was my friend from Ecuador, we seemed like the asocial ones lacking in networking and always on our laptops and thesis. Good times XD

Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, my first crush during that seminar

 Tom Chi, my other crush from this seminar

 My heels were starting to kill me by this time.

Lately

For some time, I craved pet companionship and was about to give in on many occasions. Thankfully, on my xth visit to the petsco market, a staff told me about the foster care and volunteering at the Kansas Humane Society. The following week-end, I was there for training,  and I'm now a certified foster caregiver. Amongst the highlights of my short-term companions, there was this silly big dog, Marshall, an Akita Mix, 2yrs and one week old, 96lbs, very destructive, extremely energetic and by far the one that stayed the longest with me and was in constant need of attention and care. I also spent my Spring Break with him. He is adopted now :).

Ratchet was quick to come and go but was the cleverest by far. He found his forever home as well.

 

 Belle is currently my roommate. She was quarantined for a scratch, something I almost scoff at in here. I have my "In Morocco..." moments at such time. She is the sweetest girl and seems to love licking my hands when I'm typing. She will be up for adoption this Sunday and again, I'll have to say good-bye. Hopefully this time though, the next pet in need of foster will be available when I drop her.

One of the side projects I got to work on was a fanzine for the old-timer. He is 63 yrs old by April the first and going strong. Bless him.

One of the perks of fostering a dog is daily walks. With Marshall, walks had to be long, filled with sprinting and new places, in the hopes he will tire enough to just sleep and not destroy the apartment. I got to see more of my campus though, and was pleasantly surprised to discover these statues near the baseball stadium. To think this is my second semester and my ninth month in here and I'm still uncovering the university's grounds...Oh well, I'm not too surprised, being confined to few spots as I have been.

This is America: two huge screens for my own personal use because there are just so many around and those are cornered in an isolated non-popular spot. First time I get to follow two games at the same time. Being here with all the craze over sports, I grew an obsessive spot for soccer. I just hope the worse of the fever will be over soon and I get to resume my moderated watching pace. It grew to an extent where I am watching every minor league as of now while doing my homework or reading.

Verily, oddest habits get sharper or rustier in travels.

Nominated

Now left is to be accepted and becoming a grantee. I'm bracing myself.

There Goes Nothing

I submitted my application. I did well, but I know I could have done better GRE wise.

I'm just not too keen to report once again, but if I'm not to get the scholarship this year, I will definitely work on the GRE for the next application.

My dear Oneness, may it be whatever it is best for me. Amen.