Perusings and Dreams

My days are now filled with house keeping, food finding, piano playing, juggling, and looking forward to improv. My food supply is brilliant as I belong to a CSA that make up a bag of produce for me weekly for only $9, and the rest of my shopping I do at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. The piano playing is coming along well, and I'll be jamming on some jazz standards in no time. The temp work is slow but I think the best way for me to get work here in the summer. Still the bottom line is that I love the city of Chicago. It's marvelous.


So I’m reluctant to write about what’s going on when things don’t go exactly according to plan and thus the delay. The bad news was that I didn’t get the summer internship with Uncommon Ground nor did I get into the UNC MBA program. Yeah, boo those things. Getting denied is a new thing for me, as far as auditioning and interviewing for previous jobs I always got the part. From my freshman year at UNC getting into Hot L Baltimore, to applying for a spot on the Habitat for Humanity’s Honduras trip- I was always chosen. I mostly believed that it was because of my confidence that people trusted my judgment that I knew what I was doing by applying… that was my choice. Well folks have stopped going along with my choice it seems. But now the good news- I got into both Claremont and Babson (which is where I want to go) and I just bought a bike. Just wait once I get excited about a prospect or an activity I’ll really get going on describing it. I’d like to mention three such things right now, one of which is a book that I’ve recently read.
The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins is a book about a new kind of oppression, where in US development companies (power, infrastructure, etc) go into developing countries and plan development projects. The countries see the projected growth benefit and can’t deny the project so go to a global institution, such as the World Bank, for a loan. The projections of the development project are often exaggerated and the country becomes enslaved by the debt they owe because the projects don’t pay out. This is the work of an economic hit man or EHM. I found this perspective, although perhaps exaggerated, enlightening and it now becomes clear why opposition to the World Bank and other such institutions makes sense. I was also intrigued by the story because of many similarities between John Perkins and myself. He was in the Peace Corps in Ecuador, he then took the business route (which I’m doing), and is now concerned with creating a better world supported by his activities in the Ecuadorian jungle called Dream Change. Well, I’m skipping the whole exploitation part and I’m focusing on improvement for the masses. If you’ve ever wanted to verbalize activism for these causes the book is a must.
Another of the activities I’m involved with is improv and I’m taking class at iO, formerly known as the Improv Olympic before they were successfully sued by the Olympics for using there name, so now it’s just iO. By taking classes I get to see most of the shows there for free, which usually cost anywhere between $5 and $15, so it pays for itself. Improv and theater is a tricky deal for me because it’s impact and benefits are much lass concrete and are more secondary. I’ve been thinking that even though the Peace Corps volunteer activities are not always well coordinated and organized, and there are volunteers who do slack off a bit, the impact is greater than a Broadway musical, in which much more funding is needed. Broadway musical vs. Peace Corps taller (educational talk), I’d say that even when the taller is poorly attended it has great impact. I mean singing and dancing, that’s entertainment not development. I’m partly playing devils advocate here but it is difficult to explain what you accomplish from putting on a play. Perhaps it makes people introspective and better people or simply more informed. Even so I love theater and improv and to entertain. So I’m at odds here but I will continue to improvise because I feel it in my heart and it gives me great confidence.
Another of my whimsical thoughts pulled from my tumultuous mind combines these two concepts. This is the concept of dreaming your reality and making it so and the concept of finding meaning in improv. So my reality will definitely be a microcosm but it will include strong community, confident people, and delicious food (which will help make folks happy mmm, mmm). There will also be chocolate and blueberries and other healthy foods. I am of course talking about the Fireplace Theater run by Creighton and yours truly. I’m thinking that the theater will somehow be associated with the chocolate making that I envision. This could be my special slant in the chocolate world- theater chocolate! Don’t steal my idea. It would also be an educational facility and in fact Creighton and I in drafting up our ideas have used interchangeably theater and educational center. Well anyways, it’s fun to explore dreams and so I ask you now to take 5 minutes and explore your own dream, flesh is out some and dream that reality into being. Much like in the song of South Pacific, “you’ve got to have a dweam. If you don’t have a dweam. How you going to have a dweam come twoo?”
BOOM