Colorful Kites

Let’s go fly a kite,

Up to the highest height!

Let’s go fly a kite

And send it soaring!

This is what I said to my friend a little over a week ago on Sankranti (I would've sung it if we weren't typing to each other). Unfortunately, it was already almost dark, we were here in America, and at least a 40-minute drive away from each other to boot. But last year at that time, I was in India in the winter during Sankranti for the first time in over 12 years. It was then that I flew my first patang. More than flying or fighting or even chasing kites, though, I simply loved the festiveness of the day.

Colorful kites in a shop in Lucknow (from Wikipedia)

And How Am I Going to Have Time for This?

I ran into a friend of mine today who used to be on the ballroom team with me (before our year’s mass exodus, during which I quit).

Anyway, he’s facilitating a Salsa DeCal (1-2 unit class taught by a student), and doesn’t have enough followers. And… I basically got roped into assisting.

So even though he knows I don’t actually know much salsa, I am going to be helping to teach the class. Oh boy.

Oh, Nature...

This morning, I dashed through waterfalls, skirted around lakes, and even waded my way across a couple of rivers.

A fantastic adventure indeed, had they all not been on my route to class. It was raining hard, and I, alas, was stuck without rain boots.

My folded-up pants decided to act as rain gauges, catching the wind-blown rain. They then proceeded to remain soaking wet for hours.

At least I managed to avoid the hail?

Now or Never?

Have you ever heard the saying "Live in the moment"? Of course you have. But you've probably also heard from your parents or other elders that you'd better "start thinking about your future."

Huh. So which is it? What are we supposed to do? There's plenty of arguments for both sides, but as usual, it's all about balance, and about following the right advice at the right time. I mean, if you're thinking about the future all the time, there's no meaning to life. If it's all about the destination, rather than the journey, then

1. You won't know what to do when you get there.
2. You won't know what to do if you don't get there.
3. You're wasting the majority of your life. It's like going on an airplane and never looking out the window. Unless you're afraid of heights, though I'd hope you're not afraid of life.

 At the same time, a lot of society's problems seem to be a result of short-term thinking. Beyond imagining jet packs and flying cars and hubristic scientists managing to destroy the world, we don't consider what the world will be like even 20 or 30 years in the future.

Joel Pett, USA Today, 12/7/09

Politically, there's a lot of problems that need to be solved. A lot of them need solutions now. But in the same way that people only think about aiding the poor of foreign countries - or even their own! - during an emergency, I think people get too hung up on quick, visible results. We look the other way as we pass the burden of even bigger problems on to future generations.

Thinking about the moment is great for your personal life. You've got to enjoy it while you've got it. But when the decisions are ones that affect all of society, we need to think about the future. We have to be creative and innovative and look outside what we would normally do. There's bound to be a solution that may not be quite as effective in the short term, but will help (or at least not hurt) in the long term. As I said, it's about balance, about compromise. We've got to stop cheating on the scales by adding extra weight to the short-term side.

Big Change

I was talking today with a friend who spent about a week of his winter break on a service trip. He went to the Honduras with Global Medical Brigades to help deliver medical care to rural areas. He asserted that it was in fact the best week of his life.

The one thing he said that stuck with me, though, was about how UC Berkeley really is unique as a foundation for change. The people on the brigade came from various majors, though many of them were, like me, in the Global Poverty & Practice minor. And they all managed to raise money and supplies, go somewhere where help was needed, and do something to change both their own world and that of the people they helped.

You look around here, in America, and where do you find names from Berkeley? Well, it's a prestigious university. They're teaching as professors, arguing the law in their own firms, heading biotech companies, making money as venture capitalists. And maybe you actually see more people from Ivy League colleges in those positions.

So where are they? A large portion of the people running the Global Brigades programs were Berkeley graduates.They're not quite so visible as a Harvard-educated President or a pair of Stanfordian internet entrepreneurs, but they're out there working on improving the lots of people whom we the privileged continually forget.

They have counterparts in organizations around the world. They're the ones who are going to bring about the Millennium Development Goals and save the environment one plastic bag at a time. And they learned it here, they either gained or strengthened the drive to help here, at Berkeley. It's amazing to think that these people I'm meeting, my friends and classmates, will soon be out there making the difference themselves, and bringing Berkeley's spirit of social change to the world.

A Little Change

I started doing the 75 word thing for 2 reasons:

1. I need to work on saying things more concisely.
2. I’d be more likely to post something every day.

Often, though, I feel 75 words is not enough. I know I could write longer posts. Unfortunately, I’ve been somewhat lazy.

So with the beginning of the new semester, I’ll continue the short posts, but I’m going to try to replace some with longer ones as well.

Spring Semester Has Sprung

I am back in Berzerkely!

Winter break has finally come to a close. For once, I wasn’t bored by the end, I suppose since I had multiple adventures – Tahoe, Avatar, Wicked (!), actually meeting up with friends and extended family...

But now, it’s over. The semester starts Tuesday. I always take classes I like, so I’m looking forward to it.

First, though, I have books to buy, Japanese to review, and some work to finish.