Sylvia's Journal

Sita and Tessa gave us both a Bluetooth headset for Christmas extracting a promise that we would never wear the blue-blinking ear attachment in public. But tonight I broke that promise and went to the business center in the lobby to print my boarding pass for my flight home, blinking blue from my right ear. Nobody seemed to notice but I felt very self conscious and a little bit naughty. I did not want to miss a call from Larry (or Axel) hoping that I could still hook up with Larry and Amy for dinner. Alas, despite my high tech connection we did get our low tech signals crossed. Such is the human experience.

I had a wonderful day with my ADRA colleagues. We have in common a passion for transformative teaching and so the work feels like play. Our day-long conversation was so productive that we are far in advance of the planned schedule. The program ADRA is piloting in its leadership institute is exciting, different and full of soul. Of course one could expect this of a faith-based organization but this is not always obvious. Sometimes I run into people who mistake faith for purpose. When asked what is their purpose is in life they reply that it is to worship God and their vision is the winning of souls. That doesn’t seem all that different from what the Islamic religious zealots in the Northwest frontier in Pakistan say, except may be for the anti-American rhetoric. All claim to have a direct line to God and know what he (never a she) wants.

After work I went to Target. The long day of sitting had made me very stiff and somewhat sore and a shopping expedition seemed like the right thing to do. It was also the only interesting store in the suburban shopping mall. I did not go there to buy anything but rather to watch and look, like I’d do in a museum. The best part was a mother/daughter pair that was shopping for bras. They picked something that I would consider ugly, a lacy thing with pink and black. It looked like it belonged in a whorehouse. It also had a considerable price tag. After they made their choice the mother walked by a rack of wireless and unpadded bras (these are in the minority in today’s bra fashion) and remarked with great disdain in her voice, tugging irreverently at one of the large ones, ‘huh, these are like sacks to put your potatoes in.’ After that it was time to leave Target; how could anything top that.

I bought myself a take out dinner since it looked I’d be for dinner on my own. The hotel only serves breakfast and the restaurant choices nearby are not interesting (Friendly’s and McDonalds). I had dinner in my room indulging in the kind of continuous TV watching that I rarely do at home. I watched one fascinating PBS program after another while checking my mail and whittling down the tasks on my to-do list.