time and space

coming back was strange. not for the normal reverse-culture-shock reasons really, but because it feels like i've been gone for about a week. everything feels very normal. which maybe further confirms these thoughts i wrote my first few days in lima.

que tiene mas? claro que tiene mas!

I was thinking about the lack of existence of space in the terms we so often think of it, as I was saying goodbye to my family via the telephone on Saturday. There I was, misty eyed, saying goodbye to my parents and sister before leaving for 5 weeks. Except that I live more than 1000 miles away from them to begin with. We may be in the same country, but we do not occupy the same space. We do not really have intersecting lives, except on those occasions where one is visiting the other. But the invisible borders make all the difference. Mostly because it would be far more expensive to call them from here. So, it is the implications of differential space, not the space itself that makes all the difference.

I was also thinking about this as I was waiting for the PATH back to jersey after exchanging moneys. I was certain that if I tried hard enough, I would still be in bed that morning. And every time I drifted off to sleep on the plane, I was no longer mid flight to South America. And this is all corroborated by the existence of pizza hut and mcdonalds and bk, chilis and tgi Fridays, dunkin doughnuts, united colors of beneton, keneth cole new york, and payless shoes in lima. and even la bamba on the radio. Or Grey’s anatomy on tv. As much as I hate to admit it, diLeonard was right. When you’re standing in the middle of GAP and you can’t remember whether you’re in Des Moines or Calcutta space no longer has the meaning it once did and by extension, I wonder what this is doing to culture.

Not to say that culture has to be “traditional” (Traditional as mutton sandwiches at McDonalds, I say), but difference is the key to finding beauty in life. So, it worries me a little.