to new heights

"a toast" (taken at mtc thankstakin' lovin' 2009)

after doing some thinking about what i want to do with my life from 'here on out', i realized that there is no conceivable way for me to fully and comprehensively map out my life from 'here on out'. there are too many things i want to do in life and narrowing myself to just one static map would be a travesty of my very own core--the undefined and unconfined being that i am and will forever be.

yesterday, ruben asked me, "so what's going on with you? what's next for you...?" and i contemplatively replied, "after reevaluating some things in my life i realized that my life goals have changed a bit." then he replied, "so what new goals have made your final list?" and i quickly said, "well first of all, my list is not 'final' but to answer your question my goals have changed because my interests have changed." he next replied with, "i knew you would say that..."

this conversation is exemplary of the state that my mind is currently in. i am reevaluating and reconsidering what is indeed 'next' for me.

ill be honest, the last couple of months have indeed sparked new interests in me--public policy, law and government. after long battles over the plight of the bear's lair vendors, i have realized that i have a new found passion for changing policies that don't necessarily make sense for 'untraditional circumstances' like sustaining immigrant-owned businesses in the ever-increasing corporatization of our economy, admitting ab 540 and low-income students in higher and 'higher higher' education without securing financial aid for their living costs, the places where our colonized religions contradict and interfere with our cultural traditions and other thought-inducing gray areas in our 'not-so-perfect norm.'

policies governing our morality such as with gay marriage and abortion are totally contradictory to the supposed separation of church and state that we are quick to scapegoat when things go wrong or dont make sense. they dont make sense because there is no one-stop, fix-it-all, cookie cutter solution for governing behavior. our lives are way too complicated for a simple solution. duh.

at the heart of these gray areas, these obvious contradictions, these outstretched margins where my people live, eat, breathe, learn, love, dance, sing, play, grow...'there', is where i want to be.

...to new heights!