Books, books, and more books

In Ecuador, there´s really not a whole lot do outside of work and neighborhood time. We have prayer every night, and we also have spirituality and community nights once every week, but other than that, there´s a lot of down time. We´ve been spending it in community a lot, but I´ve found myself getting wrapped up in books. Not just any books though: I find that I try to pick books that are from known writers or from titles that I´ve heard of in the past. Or writers that I´ve heard of from elsewhere. So far, I´ve read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Radical Compassion by Gary Smith, SJ, The Shack by William Young, and now I´m reading Sex God: The Endless Connection between Spirituality and Sexuality by Rob Bell, a pastor at an Evangelical church. Each book has given me interesting thoughts and feelings after I´ve finished them, and I marvel at the transferrance of ideas between people.

What might this be, you may ask? Well, I think it´s interesting that words can translate such meaning to people. The fact that I could read a book and have my own beliefs rocked a little bit, challenged, questioned, is interesting. What´s even more interesting is that it doesn´t have to happen with someone sitting directly in front of me. It happens through a piece of paper. Someone sat down, penned these words down, and they were published for everyone to see, read, and injest, so that they, too, can make this a part of their own beliefs and life. How fascinating is that?

Then I think, well, the difference between a book and a person is a lifeforce. I go over to neighbor´s houses, and no doubt some of them can´t read. No doubt some of them can´t look at words on a page and understand what they mean. But yet, whenever I speak with them it´s like the pages of an incredible story coming to life. It´s like a real life version of your favorite stories: A Tale of Two Cities? Look at the lives of people in Monte Sinai and the Puntilla. Death of a Salesman? Look at the thousands of fathers here, trying to make an honest and help their families succeed, but are stuck in their old ways, struggling in jobs that don´t make that much money, hoping that they can keep their jobs for another way. Every day I can talk to someone who experiences these stories first hand, in life.

So then, it seems, a lifeforce is found in the pages of each book. Through the simple fact that I crack the spine of a book I´m asking it to pour out the beliefs and leanings of its author. And yet, there are also those who don´t crack spines, but yet still pour their beliefs and leanings out to me, so that I may learn and injest these things into my own life. Which makes me wonder: is there anything that doesn´t bring life? Is there anything in the world that doesn´t somehow allow life to take place? Even in this place, where cane houses and dirt roads are common place, where every family is striving to better their lives for their children, hoping to make enough money to continue building a more sufficient living space, life can take place, and it takes place to the fullest.

In the end, I don´t know if this blog entry makes a lot of sense. Words, books, lifeforces, life. The transferrance of life. The way people live. Reading books brings life to all people because people´s lives are in the books, fiction or not. Talking to people here is like reading a book because people´s lives are in the stories they tell. Maybe everything in life leads people to life, even the tradgedies. Jeez, this makes me want to read a good book.

What´s going on down here?

I haven´t had a lot of time to get to blogging. It´s been a slight dry spell from my other weeks of frequent updating. For that I am sorry for all of you avid readers of my thoughts; I´m so blessed to have so many people following this blog! I want to say, straight away, that I have been reflecting on all of the support I´ve been getting back home. Whether it be from those who donated to my cause monetarily, or those who continue to donate through letters, graduation pictures (Meaghan!) or facebook/gchatting, I am certainly feeling the love down here from the States. Thank you all so much!

Now, as for my time here recently. It seems like things have been becoming a little routine. During the weeks I´ve been waking up, walking around the barrio, coming home, getting on the bus and going to work, working, returning from work, having communiy dinner, having community prayer, and going to sleep. This simple structure has varied, thogh: we throw in weekly spirituality and community nights, which gives the week some flavor. There is also some leighway with neighborhood time as well: I never know who I am going to meet, who´s going to approach me, or even if I´ll be able to respond and understand what the person is saying. Recently I´ve been going around alone, too, which has been a rush because I´m gaining more confidence in speaking to people around. Like I said earlier: it´s becoming a little routine, but there are certainly enough variables in my day to keep it fresh.

Last night I ran community night, and I introduced everyone to the craziness of my personality using (my favorite) improv. We played Zip-Zap-Zop, Zoom-Schwartz-Profigliano, and 21, and although I was a little afraid my community wasn´t going to enjoy it, they threw themselves in it and we had a blast. It was especially fun playing Caveman 21. If you´re reading this and don´t know what the hell I´m saying, don´t worry, that´s normal. Improv is something that has become such a part of my life that I am excited to tell/show everyone about it. And, one may be saying, "What does improv have to do with community?"

Well, I think the most important thing is that, especially using those games, improv builds community. One of the most important rules of improv is that you have to clear your mind and just be during each game, allow the game to happen to you and not anticipate what´s going to happen. In community life, this is essential; I can´t pretend to expect this community to be like the communities I lived in with Leaderworx. I can´t expect my community members to be my friends forever (although, the way things are going, it may just turn out that way). I just have to live with them and try to understand them as they are, not as they once were, or as they will be. All five of us have lived through the past and not yet made it to the future, we must live now. This is a useful thought to have when living in community, and living in general.

The one thing that doing improv made me do was miss doing improv back in the states with On the Fly. I don´t think the people in the ensemble realize this, but as silly as this will sound (and probably corny), doing improv really opened me up more and allowed me to have the ganas to put myself out there more than I could before. It gave me more courage and encouragment to just be myself and be happy with that. It´s a blessing to know that I have such a community back home, where I can just be myself and not have to worry about judgments or preconcieved notions. I can just be, and not worry about it.

One more thing to write about, and then I´ll stop. Yesterday morning our local priest, Father John, came by our house to pick up Aaron for a trip into Guayaquil centro. He walked in and approached me, sat down at our table, and began talking to me about the music ministry here. He said that he was impressed by my work with the guitaristas at St. Theresa, a capilla under the parroquia Bautismo de Jesus, and he wanted me to have more responsibility in the main parish church, Corpus Cristi. He wanted me to begin thinking up music for each month, and wanted to work with me to get the whole parish to participate not only in the pews, but also in a possible music group that the parish can form. In a nutshell, he said that I need to take charge of the music in the parish.

Now, it sounded awesome at the time. I was really excited, although overwhelmed. I didn´t know where to begin, espeically since everyone down here doesn´t read music and uses solfedge when they play music (translating guitar chords was difficult). The only thing is that we currently have another music group from another parish coming to play every Sunday at the big parish, and they are fantastic. THey have built up music in that parish already, and the last thing I want to do is step on toes or invalidate all of the hard work they´ve done. That wouldn´t be fair to them. So today I´m going to talk to Father John about how I wouldn´t be comfortable with taking over the ministry unless they continued to be involved until they wanted to stop. I can´t be part of slowly pushing that group out of our parish.

I think that´s about all for now. I wish all of you in the states saludos, and thank you for all the support again. KEEP SENDING ME MAIL/LETTERS! It´s awesome!!!

From Ecuador, with love.