Pondering What Matters

So, it feels like everyone I know is on a mission trip to some far away country right now. Also, I have begun watching BBC's Planet Earth. These two things may not seem to have anything in common, but the mixture of watching 3-4 hours of natural history documentaries a night and reading everyone's blog updates has spurred some reflection as to what are important and meaningful pursuits, and conversely what might not be. For example, think of these two things, and then contrast that to spending two whole days on the computer researching programs where you pay money to go to a foreign country filled with a bunch of interesting old stuff and study ideas so that you can show other people the interesting old stuff... In light of dying wild camels in the Gobi desert and mass genocide in third world countries, it all seems a little petty, doesn't it?

And yet, this is what I want to do with my life. Most of the time, it seems equally lofty and important, not to mention being the thing which I most enjoy out of every pursuit I have ever contemplated and the thing for which I seem best suited. And yet, this week, I just can't quite wrap my head around it. I know it takes all kinds of people in this world -- those who sit in small huts for two years in the Antarctic filming penguins, and those who set up microfinancing systems in war-ridden African countries, as well as those who preserve our shared cultural memory through the academy and museums. And even all of these possibilities presupposes being born into that station in which the world is at your fingertips and you can literally have your choice of professions, after of course spending a quarter of a century being taken care of so that you can enjoy the immense privilege of sitting around contemplating ideas. Many people don't even live to be a quarter of a century old, and I am planning to spend that amount of time reading, and then complaining about it and what "hard work" it is.

Again, not to say that it isn't important, because logically it is. Furthermore, I obviously enjoy this life of leisure. I legitimately enjoy school, and being able to participate in things like Crane Scholars, and museum work, and my laptop with my wireless internet that allows me to type this rant into the cosmic void whilst sitting on a couch watching Star Wars, and my nice comfy room in my brand new residential college filled with boxes and boxes of non-essentials, and the ideals for which the college stands, and the opportunity to live in community. And then I remember that I would be equally living in community if I shared a hut with ten other people in a village the size of Brooks... it just wouldn't be filled with nearly as many non-essentials.

I don't know if there's really a point to all this. There may not be. I was just thinking about it as I watched the baby polar bears fight for survival, then read Em's blog, and I figured I might as well vent on here as not. That's it, I guess.