Argentina Ruminations
If you'll pardon my ADD, I'm basically going to post this as a list of thoughts, rather than using cogent rhetoric. It's summer. :-D
- Jacob G.
- I'll remember every abrazo (hug) and every beso I received. Really, names and faces to many of them. I sigh I little when I shake hands now, and lament when people ask me on the bus to move away from them. If only Americans knew what each other felt like.
- Siesta culture is awesome. Knowing that you couldn't do business if you wanted to between 1 PM and 4 PM sure makes it easier to live in the moment and not live in worry and hurry.
- It's nice to cross the street without having the fear of God instilled in you by crazy drivers who will run you over. It's also nice having streets with less than 20 lanes.
- A leisurely late lunch is far improved with a leisurely dessert and half-cup of coffee.
- Evangelicals in Argentina seem to have (thus far) avoided much of the corruption and pettiness that has made it a political sect in the U.S. I hope that continues, because God has done so many beautiful things through them.
- Though translation helps (and is certainly a gift to the Kingdom), music still has some kind of visceral, universal appeal to it. A brief introduction in Spanish to Prayer of the Children served to set the scene, but words could not describe the memorable and meaningful silence in the theatre in Buenos Aires as the lights dimmed. Music helps facilitate those "thin places," as the Celts call them, where God is so close you can feel His breath.
- I have always and still like Promised Land and Old Dan Tucker. How much more American can you get? Sacred Harp and down-home folk?
- I understand why Piazzolla and Borges drew fierce opposition from Argentina. Though quiet, they are a fiercely proud people, and the syncretism of style and belief they included in their works would seem to be less amenable to Argentina than the English-speaking world (primarily US and UK, where such syncretism is expected).
- "Baptists and Free Brethren are kissing cousins." - Manuel Sosa. I'll add to that: jazz and tango are kissing cousins too. And, in both cases, beautiful things happen when family cooperates.
- Both missionary couples we worked with showed me how truly the Body of Christ is a family. "Aunt" Laura really felt like an Aunt. Manny and Berta remind me of what I want to be when I grow up. Paul's speeches before our performances would get me choked up - because I did understand what he was saying about us. And I smiled like a little brother the first time Rolo smiled at me, gave me an abrazo, and said, "Amigo."
- Point: "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu." "People are people through other people." I really realized how profoundly friendships and acquaintances speak of who you are.
- Counterpoint: But the core of identity comes from the positive affirmation of self, an absolute relationship to the absolute. Outside sources don't always affirm, and negation and silence are always vague. Dependency on outside sources of affirmation can give us little more than a relative relationship to the relative. God is an absolute, and faith is an absolute. Sounds like a great place to start.
- I need a digital camera. Bad. Too many ruined photos, and good developing is getting hard to find.
- Argentina is very different from Brasil. Very different.
- As a bookend to my first comment, I will remember every deep conversation (and even some not-so-deep) I had with other folks on the trip. Jonathan and Mrs. Bradley on literature, Harry on philosophy (I'm going to check out Brothers Karamazov sometime soon), Justin on God's will, James C. on growing in faith and American history, Braeden on music and expressing art, Chris on a little bit of everything, Alan and John on the Church, Dr. Bradley on vocation, James N. and Collin on dorm antics, Isaac on heroism and airplanes (sorry if I scared you), Hannah (who now knows my man-crush - it's Matthew Bellamy from MUSE), Ben W. on tough times, Ben R. on getting brain-fatigue from Spanish, Clint on Coke Slurpees and the timelessness of hymns. And if we didn't get a chance to talk that much, then it'll happen sometime!
- Jacob G.