The Power of Connection

Today begins my first weekend in Hamar. Although I have been here a week, I am just now settled into the apartment, have most of the place furnished, and have a sufficient amount of food. Our first week was quite relaxing and class minimal, yet I think my head was in a daze from traveling and trying to believe that I am living here, right here, in this dingy little apartment for the next four months.

Therefore, in order to motivate myself and inspire my world traveling and passion, I visited the Wang Center's World Conversations blog this morning. I read my last post from my January 2007 excursion to South Africa. My post was epic, to say the least. I found myself wondering if I was simply writing so profoundly because of the forum and the potentially large PLU audience? Optimistically, I also entertained the notion that SA is simply that moving a place, and anyone experiencing the places and people I saw would have written about it in such a way?

Nevertheless, I could not help but compare that writing style of a short six months ago to the one I have assumed on this blog. Many of my entries here thus far sound a little forced and not entirely thought out. As such, I want to make a concerted effort from here on out, to use this as a medium for not simply regurgitating the days events. Moreover, I don't want to try and force anything to be profound or life-altering. I wrote only six times in 25 days while in SA. I remember Internet access was sparse, but I also remember the times that I blogged I had an overwhelming urge to do so. I want that feeling to return here, so I can enjoy it...and you all can have more exciting reading.

That said, I am finding this experience here in Norway to be an incredible time for reflection. On one hand, I am actively pursuing friendships with my classmates and other Norwegians. Everyone knows there is plenty of energy that goes into being oneself and finding the connections in life experiences and aspirations that connect us to new people. And more often than not, that times does not permit much reflection. Yet, at the end of the day, I have found much of my reflection in journaling is about those 'at home' and the foundation of our relationships. That is to say, when thinking about Ingrid, I am not thinking about the last time I saw her, when we parted in Roslyn, or about my housemates and the activities we did this summer. But I have been thinking about the building blocks of my relationships with those people and how each piece individually highlights us and has subsequently shaped us over the years. In this way, it is an incredible way to think about those whom I miss because I can reconstruct the defining memories that my brain holds onto. I see them as a still shot. Just a Polaroid from that exact spot. I can see myself as if I watched the conversation happening.

And that's just it. In reflecting on many of my happiest memories at PLU these three years, I realized that they have taken place in a one-on-one conversation. Whether it was on the old futon in 367, in NPCC, my lofts, the 3E hallway, Cory and Cole's room, the Maroon 5, Red Square, the Base Camp hallway (upstairs), or Pflueger lobby; so many of my defining moments and friendships have been through the power of conversation. It is a connection that happens, if for just a moment, where context melts away and it is just the two of us. It is almost as if life makes complete sense. Truth, beauty and love are all simultaneously realized and you are free to just be. That is what grabbed me so much in SA and re-reading my final post this morning helped remind me of what I am so passionate about: Dialogue. In it's essence, dialogue is human connection. Sure it can be conflict resolution, community building, world shaping...but first it must bring two people together and be.

Many often quote the idiom "to err is human, to forgive divine," to remind us that compassion and forgiveness are humankind's greatest virtues. I would add that at the core of both of those notions are the skills of empathy and listening. They are skills that we can actively pursue and hone. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson (the great, great, great grandfather of Britt Inga Emerson, the American girl from D.C. in my programme here, and my friend): "To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded." This beautiful reminder of the fundamental impact we can have on another's life and thus our won; is for me, the reason to live.

I still holds true, that is never to late to forgive someone, nor to say you are sorry, nor to tell someone how much they mean to you. Embracing that connection with humanity is what life is all about. That is what I saw in SA. That is what drove me towards these further international adventures. Perhaps PLU had begun to cloud that for me? Maybe I grew too comfortable in one spot? Perhaps my laziness inhibited me seeing the big picture, the pursuit of something unattainable. Yet is that pursuit that drives me, it has driven people for millennia. Challenging and questioning life, pursuing that countless connections and friendships that take us to the ends of the earth, and reveling in humankind's spirit and capacity as we be and take in the beauty around us.

As this current adventure continues to evolve, I want to keep these important guiding lights as my side to remind me of how much I appreciate this opportunity and should never discount any experience. Each one as the potential to be breath-taking and life-shaping.