January 8, 2009 -- read with caution.

One of the disadvantages to living alone in a foreign country is not having anyone to go to for comfort when something awful happens. I just read a story about a young woman in Papua New Genuia (not spelled right I know) who was burned alive in a garbage dump today or yesterday. Apparently she was accused of being a witch. The article said that this is a frequent occurance in PNG, when someone dies someone else is targeted as a scapegoat and killed as though responsible for the original death. Okay, this one was pretty hard for me to stomach.

Other than reading that article and keeping up with the situation in Gaza I have spent today slowly going through more things in the apartment, cleaning out and organizing. I have decided to send things home in boxes by category. i.e. everything that I bought in South Korea will go into one box labeled South Korea, etc. Hopefully it will help stateside when I need to figure out what goes where...I am cold still (yes, I am drinking some tea:) and was told yesterday that I need to turn off the air conditioner (doubling as a "heater") sometimes to give it a rest -- it literally freezes on the outside of the building, I can see ice building up on it out there. There are apparently disadvantages to being a homebody. Yesterday I went out with my friend Fei and gave it a break, tomorrow I will be going out again to have coffee with a friend and run other errands, so I will be giving it another break. Hard to believe but already this coming Monday I will be leaving for Gansu and the Amity Winter Conference...

I also spent more time today reading Silent Cry, my Dorothee Sollee book on Mysticism. I was reminded that what she calls attentiveness I call intentionality. Being present to the moment. In some of my conversations with friends, both Chinese and foreign, here in Nanjing I am aware that happiness is often equated with income. Clearly having enough to eat and adequate shelter is highly important to human quality of life. Beyond the basic necessities, in the states some of the kindest people I have known have been those who have little. Perhaps less can contribute to intentionality. Read between the lines.

I am listening to Canon in D Major right now -- soaring with the strings. I have been trying to catch up on my 2006 European pictures as I have the extra time -- getting them labeled, alas I have already forgotten the countries where some of the pictures are from. One of the pictures is an amazing European cathedral -- this music takes me back there. Just as the architecture soars towards the heavens, so this music carries me towards the outer limits of time and space.