Dear India Loves,
It has been way too long. I’m sorry that I suck at keeping in touch. I have been thinking about writing this for months... What am I up to? Writing, teaching, going to art events. The past year has brought me a lot of clarity regarding my life path as I’ve graduated and begun to move out into the larger world. I live in New York part time because I am too poor to live there full time. I’m currently working as a poetry and dance teacher at an Arabic summer camp. I just went to Beirut for three weeks in January. It was heart-wrenching. I toured some of the sites of the destroyed bridges and homes from the July 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Right now, I’m looking at one of the photos from Joe’s birthday party at Buddha Garden. We are holding up trays of pastries from the French bakery. (How absurd is it that Auroville had a French bakery? My friend Fallon lived in an apartment filled with snakes and giant spiders.) I am curious to hear how you each feel about the India trip, now, almost 3 years later. I miss many things, mostly the heat, the rain and the time spent meditating every morning.
What does sustainability look like to you now? I’m finding in harder to believe in a global shift as something that will happen suddenly and irrevocably. Change happens slowly and patterns are hard to see. It is always easier to identify the start of something when you are looking backwards into the past instead of into the future. I know that you (plural!) have been drawn into adventures, from Africa to San Francisco to Arizona and more. I love every minute of talking to each of you. I think of you so much more often than I have time to call. So, send updates!
Social justice for me can mean anything from picketing for Gaza (in Philadelphia and Beirut) to interrogating the meaning of words and political speech. After finishing my MA here, I plan to go on to a PhD so that Joe and I can keep on commiserating about the state of academia... This bizarreness that has engulfed our economy and our country. What are your perspectives? Anyway, I'm here in Beirut where things are different... but also strangely similar.
Much love,
Laurel
