Older than Thou

As I have alluded the Holiday of Justice was a unique and wonderful.
I will not squeeze the chilled set of awesome experiences into a laundry
list of "done"s, but a couple of tales demand the telling. However, they
wont really encapsulate the most unique part of the holiday- the part
that has stayed and grown in me- the feeling of being in the incredible
and very different civilisational space that is Egypt. Reflecting on the
thoughts and feelings that flowed around me there I wrote this poem.

"Older than thou"

They seem to shout in sultry silence.
Eras have gone and the blood of their construction
Has passed with generations.
Ideologies now clash where the beating heart
Long silenced, once pulsed with the rythm of the Sun.

It is raw like summers glare, this new vision.
Seeks not to imitate the land of my forbears
But speaks in absolutes that comfort, guide and frighten.
Its sober tongue pleases my ear with melody
Though my heart and mind are not tuned for such a message

I wonder if they are waiting to be found
Or in finding, are they waiting for wonder?
Renunciation of sin or self? Of wandering or world?
These ancient walls too high for me to stand atop
And judge with even hands the kindness of the other.

To find only endings of stories long told
Is to forget the land of experience and origination.
Fed by an older Nile, it flows unrestrained
To the ancient shifting sands whose banks offer a canvass
Upon which we will paint the young minds of tomorrow.

The Holiday of Justice

There is one guy from North-Eastern Belorussia who just left his country on a holiday for the first time of his life. He dined in Venice, Prague and Budapest, sun baked on small tropical islands in Micronesia, attended a coming of age ceremony in a Ghanian village, looked down upon the world atop Mount Aconcagua in the Andes and wrested a polar bear in the Artic- and won. Besides this rare and perhaps all too fictional character, I have just had the best Holiday in the World. A holiday so excellent that from this moment forth it shall be capitalised and described as "The Holiday of Justice".

Where was this finest of weeks spent I hear you think, jaws gaping at the prospect of such wonder? Why, the very place that victory holidays have been spent for Millenia; Misr... Aegypten... the ancient and ever glorious Egypt. Such a Holiday cannot be described in a single post, especially as I am now stealing a few minutes off from a busy agenda in Finland, but upon my return to R'dam next week I will recall many of the precious pearls of experience The Holiday did provide. For now I can only describe it as the feeding of the flame of life that burns within, the replenishment of a weary traveller, and the opener of eyes grown tired.

This unique combination of chillaxing, education, exposure to real cultural diversity, wonderful conversation, the finest foods and serene and life changing places standing amidst the very milestones of history, was made possible by one man. This man is, and forever shall be, my brother of the spirit. More than any other I know he truly lives in the world. A man who continually challenges me, teaches me, and keeps me rolling on the floor and laughing endlessly. A true Taoist, though he knows it not, I am happy to walk this path with him through many more wonderful places. Thomas Quincey Gara, I salute you.

Wicked Wanderings

Once more having the best job in the world pays off. Tomorrow I'm jumping on a plane to Skopje, Macedonia, where I will spend 12 days running a conference for the AIESECers from the national teams across Europe. After this I will head to Egypt for 8 days of justice holiday with Tom and Brodie- as mentioned earlier. I fly back into the Netherlands on the 5th of April and fly out to Helsinki the same day. After four days of strategic planning in a cottage somewhere in Finland I will head to the last few days of the Swedish national conference and Swedish transition planning, before getting back to Rotterdam on the 13th of April or so. If I get waylaid by Egyptian spice traders or Scandinavian design students it might be considerably longer.

So stay tuned for stories of adventures that will hopefully involve myrrh, an archduke, several Micronesian islands and a very large hollow wooden horse. If I'm not blogging so regularly for the next little while it's because myrrh is in short supply.

Mount Sinai Meditations

mount sinai, originally uploaded by artyj.

So it is settled booked and paid for. Brodie will be joining Tom and me in Egypt for our 8 day sabbatical. As I mentioned earlier adventures will be had and jade returned, but our gracious host has organised new wondrous events to engage the spirit. We will be chilling by the sea in Basata (the best place ever) and climbing Mt Sinai. The selfsame Mt Sinai where Moses was said in the Bible to have received the Ten Commandments from God. Now it is disputed by some whether Mt Sinai, or Gebel Musa as it is called in Arabic, is actually the one from the bible, but its close enough and far enough away from Australia to count. The real question is, I ask to you the reader, what should Tom, Arthur and Brodie be discussing whilst reflecting on the summit of Mt Sinai as the sun sets across the Red Sea? The unity of all religions? The nature of the cosmic story? Pool alignment? Post comments and we promise to discuss the most insightful and engaging question atop this historical mount. Can't promise tablets but we'll try to come up with something fundamental.

Raising Global Pyramid Awareness

For too long people have ignored the unusual elliptical pyramid at Uxmal, Mexico. Similarly the pyramidal Moche Temple of the Sun in Peru has been overlooked. To this end I will be heading to Cairo Egypt to raise gloabl pyramid awareness. I have high expectations of them being simultaneously; giant, sandy, triangle themed and altogether massively like the tomb of some Ancient Egyptian Pharoah.

On March 27 I shall be heading Egypt side to visit my brother of the spirit, one Tom Gara. Adventures shall be had, discussions will be as wide ranging and free flowing as the dishes that will be consumed. If possible we will return a few jade monuments to warring tribes, thus bringing peace to the land.