Quo Vadis?

So I usually spend an hour or two every morning studying Chinese, usually via Chinese Pod, and reading Chinese-related blogs, in part because I am keeping my own blog on China in anticipation of the book. This morning, I read a James Fallows article in the new edition of The Atlantic (on line). Fallows spent three years in Beijing. In the article he considers the issue of whether America is in decline. It's a great read, highly recommended. But I have other things on my mind. In particular, what to do next. I was contacted by the Peace Corps regarding the possibility of going to Indonesia in April or May for six or eight months (they tend to be rather vague). The one thing that would hold me back, and it is a rather big thing, is the promise to my editor that I would be around to promote the book in the fall. Since there is a possibility of the book coming out in January, the Peace Corps is still an option. But in truth, it is probably not much of an option, because the book really needs to come out sooner rather than later.





Getting exhausted trying to plan out a travel schedule for the rest of the year. I may have written it up elsewhere, but here is the latest incarnation (all dates are approximate, as is my sanity):

Jan 26: Tucson to Tokyo
Feb 3: Tokyo to Bangkok (Chiang Mai)
Feb 26: Bangkok to Chengdu
June 17: Beijing/Shanghai to SFO (SACP June 18-21)
June 21: SFO to Tucson
July 8: Tucson to Boston (for Thoreau conference July 8-11)
July 12: Boston to Rome
July 13: Rome to Athens (for philosophy conferency/research)
Sept 18: Athens to Rome
Sep 21: Rome to Boston
Sept 28: Boston to Tucson

The goal is to spend a semester studying in China, a couple of months in the summer in Greece, and then fall in Concord Massachusetts, primarily at the Thoreau Library. That is at least the goal of the book, which would include as well winter in India. Visiting each of the world's wisdom traditions during a season (counting Concord, Massachusetts as part of this lot). An ambitious plan, to say the least. (Yes, other words could be used to describe it as well).

Mad Magazine

I am sitting at a branch of the Tucson public library, moderately hung over from what has become my routine of a late night indulgence in the better part of a bottle of wine. In truth, it is the only time I can get any peace and quiet. God knows it's not to be found in the public library, or in the Barnes and Nobles or Starbucks I frequent. Anyway, it is Mad Magazine that has prompted this latest entry. I went to the library to get some serious work done. In preparation for the publication of my book, I am trying to establish a web presence. In addition to my China website (www.chinafromafar.com) I have decided to begin posting interviews on amazon.com. So having just finished Mark Leonard's "What China Thinks," I was planning on writing up a review and publishing it at amazon, referenciny my website and maybe even getting noticed by the author. That was the plan this morning. But then I came across Mad Magazine on the shelfs. And that pretty much sunk my productive mode. Anyway, it got me thinking that a radical change is called for, or at least a different direction on a variety of fronts. I had this same feeling running in the desert the other day. There was the same music on my ipod, I was thinking, and it is just time to clear the decks there and start anew. So with Mad Magazine, I think the idea was tha a new intellectual direction is called for (recall the earlier talk of a true sabbatical) and one way to lay the groundwork for that new direction is by goofing off, or at least taking time off from any intellectual pursuits

New Year Resolutions?

I am not sure why, but for some reason I feel the need to have some New Year's resolutions. In general, I know I need to get better at long term planning. Unfortunately, right now my life is not really set up for that. So I try to think of some things I can accomplish regardless of my travel schedule.

1.I am trying to stay away from the political fray, which means no more cable political shows (Countdown, Rachel Maddow, etc) and no more political websites (Politico, Huffington Post). Just say no.

2.I think because my diet has been so out of control here, and in some ways necessarily so because I am not doing the cooking, I have at least vowed to keep a food journal.

3.I want to over time work my way through the four classic Chinese novels. I read The Monkey King during my Peace Corps service, or at least most of it, since it is a four volume 1,600 page work. I have loaded on my Kindle "Dream of a Red Chamber," also known as "Story of the Stone." It is about as long as Monkey King. I want to finish it by the end of the year.

4. I would like to get back on a regular meditation schedule and meditate for at least twenty minutes every day, preferably in the morning

I would like to have a running plan for the year, but the schedule simply does not seem set up for this. Similarly two long term projects that seem continually to bog down are learning Chinese and studying classical guitar. I am sort of stuck at an intermediate level for both of these and haven't made much progress in a while. But in truth I don't see the situation in any of these improving much, with the possibility of Chinese if I go to Chinaa

Happy New Year

: The goal for the New Year is to write in this thing everyday because, well, I need a goal for the New Year and this at least seems like an attainable one. Actually, I need several goals for the New Year, or at least one grand, overarching one. But right now, this is all I can come up with. Actually it is already a few days late to even begin this project but, well, what are you going to do? I mean, I confront the New Year a completely blank slate: no idea what to do, what to write, where to live. Some might find this exhilarating; I find it exhausting. Plan A had been to be in the Peace Corps by now, and in someway that is still a possibility. That is, the Peace Corps is going to be sending people there sometime on the list and I have been cleared for this mission and am on the list of candidates. The one obstacle standing in the way is that I promised my editor I would be back in the fall when the book is released to do publicity, and I have every intention of keeping that vow. A small possibility exists that the book publication be put off until January, and then that would allow me the possibility of serving in Indonesia. But I am hesitant to request that and it is unlikely to happen if I do (and not guaranteed to happen if I do). Then there is the one year project---a wisdom for all seasons—to wander the globe for a year—primarily China, India and Greece—in search of how classic wisdom traditions are faring in everyday life. This strikes everyone I tell it to as an interesting project, and me too sometimes. At other times it seems overwhelming, expensive and exhausting. But it provides me with a plan and a focus—and that is not something to be lightly discounted. It would start in late February in China, and I would probably leave about a month before to visit friends in Japan and Thailand along the way. It would require me to be back in the States by mid-June for a conference in California and another one in mid-July in Concord, and then in Greece shortly thereafter for one or two conferences there before spending a month in Athens and then back to the States in mid-September for a fall in Concord Massachusetts, heading to a month long Buddhist retreat in Colorado in mid-December and to India for a couple of months once that is finished. I get exhausted just writing about it.

Quote of the Day

"I don't sleep. I hate those little snatches of death"--Paul Lulewicz

A True Sabbatical

I have been relatively inactive on the blog as of late. Part of this has to do with the holidays and part of this has to do with the fact that I have been facing a deadline for turning in the final manuscript of the "Socrates in Sichuan" book. Well, that deadline (Jan 1st) has just passed and I got the manuscript turned in, although I think if I had to read it one more time I would scream, or throw up. I still have a bit of work to do on a rather lengthy questioneer I need to complete in conjunction with the book. And I also should probably start work on the index. So it's not like my duties related to the book will cease as of today. But hopefully it will be less intense and I will be able to focus my energy on other things.

What those other things might be, I cannot say. I ran across a headline on the Starbucks website when I logged on the other day at the cafe. I didn't read the story but it was about some graphic artist who said he took every seventh year off. And for some reason that really hit a chord, the idea of just time off without any obligation that it amount to something. I am not sure what is next, but one thing I have been planning is a schedule of travel in conjunction with a book about wisdom in various parts of the world. But then I would have to be in China, India or Greece for a particular purpose, to find some relation between my stay there and the wisdom tradition of that culture. And that is a fundamentally different state of mind to be in than one where the mind can lie fallow and not have to focus on anything in particular. For some reason, perhaps because I feel I have been pretty heavily focused for as long as I can recall, the thought of a true sabbatical is very appealing.

New Yorker article

I highly recommend a story in the Dec 21st issue of The New Yorker, an article titled "The Monkey and The Fish: Can Greg Carr Save the African ecosystem?" It tells the story of Greg Carr, a guy who made a couple of hundred milllion dollars developing and marketing voice mail and Internet services and then about ten years ago, instead of continuing to make money or just quitting and goofing off, he decided to become a hand on philathropist and after a couple of abortive efforts ends up in Gorongosa National Park in Central Mozambique trying to save the park. What intrigues me is that is the fact that this guy can do anything he wants and is out there trying to do some good and actually living rather uncomfortably for a good part of the year in the process. But it is a sense of purpose that drives him. This is what we all need, regardless of our income levels, and I guess it is what I am still looking for. Here's the link

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/21/091221fa_fact_gourevitch