The quest to read as much as possible before the summer ends continues.
I finished What Is The What with much pleasure. It took a whille to dig through it, but I feel enlightened - or at least slightly more aware - of a conflict and situation into which I had such little insight prior. I am excited to continue digging through Valentino’s website to see the connection between the text and the present. It’s still extremely overwhelming to realise that it’s an (auto)biographical novel. There are more than a million things about which I want to talk regarding this work, but when I put the thoughts together in my head, it all seems too…much like reaching.
When I want to talk about how it’s truly made me reconsider the way in which I use resources, for instance, the discussion seems so banal. And on top of that, there are very few adjustments I can make in my priveleged, suburban life, that would really make a difference. I suppose that’s the perpetual paradox, is knowing what effort can really change a situation. There’s absoultely nothing productive in fretting that I am in my position. If anything, it gives me the opportunity to be more thankful for it. I realistically don’t have the means to fly to Africa and work with refugees, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to deal with the notion of feeling like I flew in to “fix things.” Whatever that means.
I have been thinking a good deal about what my friend David said in the brief hour that I was able to see him last week. He just returned from Africa, filiming documentaries for social change. We had this very conversation about one’s own responsibility in society to help, and how that help is administered, and it was difficult for me to feel okay about myself. I suppose I can’t fault myself for not saving the world, but it would just be nice if I could shake hands with myself on the notion as a whole.
M
