Re-entry after ALA-NO

Those of my peers more wired than I have been blogging in real time about their trip to New Orleans for American Library Association's annual convention. The impact of the trip is still being processed--it was not your typical professional convention. The city is battered and slowly recovering--an indomitable spirit that warmly welcomed us despite formidable constraints, not least of all an obstructionist governmental structure. More details may come later, including a food-ography.

Re-entry after these things is usually difficult. Sessions discuss best practices, not mediocre practices executed in a horrible bureaucracy, and vision instead of reality. Indeed it is about making vision reality, so I need to remind myself that I shouldn't get discouraged after coming down from the mountain. I get an image of someone leaning into the wind, coat pulled up toward the face, yet still moving forward. And hopefully not alone.

¿Por qué?

Slowly, the meaning of a particular dream is coming out, one in which I am encouraged to learn Spanish by a foreign exchange student. Before this weekend, the library copy of Teach Yourself Latin American Spanish was languishing on the shelf. I'm not going to say quite what is in store yet, as I am not sure how it will take shape, but it's not to run with the bulls or sip at a resort in Baja. Some indications have come out in the form of a recent newspaper article, and discussions with a few folks, and the result is a quivering of energy within the body, something which may or may not confirm whether these connections are contributing to my being "on purpose". The excitement is currently associated with the "busy brain", the brain that gets excited about the prospect of a new project, and then realizes it wasn't right at all, energy can't be sustained, etc., so I know I have to get quiet to figure out whether this is really real and what He wants.

The great thing is that I have come so far as to recognize this within me, and what the next step needs to be (and that it's not necessarily to "take action").

Goooaaaaallllll!!!

Aren't our national sports championships lame compared to the World Cup? The TV in the student union had soccer on today, and it was great to see all of the students crowded around to watch Italy vs. Ghana (Czech Republic had already beaten US 3-0 by this point). Our next door neighbor is from England (Leeds if I remember correctly, but likely not), and watches soccer religiously. He mentioned that we are likely to hear him hollering at 6 in the morning.

Slate features some articles on soccer today, including this one by Dave Eggers. He is right: the way kids are tapped to play soccer, we would think the sport had a larger role in the adult lineup than, certainly basketball and football.

I have great childhood memories of soccer, including when Pele played for the New York Cosmos (and my green Cosmos t-shirt that I proudly wore in late gradeschool/early junior high). Another great memory is during my high school French Club's trip to France, when our tour guide ran ahead of all of us once we reached our lodging in Angouleme so he could race to the tele to watch whatever match was happening. We American kids just didn't get it--we still don't, and that is our loss.