In the first weeks (in NC) of my 21 month mission experience I felt like a muppet with a hand in my back and another one moving my mouth. Only my mind was left to think and analyze. I lacked knowledge of my surroundings, words to speak in my new language, experience in my new world, choices within my realm of possibilities, and ability to act for myself because of these absolute inadequacies. My new world proceeded to shape and move me.In the first weeks in Michigan I feel again like I once did. I work for a huge accounting firm that reaches around the globe. I work in a corporate headquarters that is behind the largest pizza delivery network in the world. I feel like nobody would notice if I had a heart attack and decomposed under my desk. I lack experience, words, understanding of my choices and where those choices might lead. I feel the absolute opposite of free. My new world is proceeding to shape and move me.
These two experiences are snow globe versions of life. Shaped and moved by what crosses our paths, and at the same time resticted and bonded because of what doesn't. Some things stick, some don't. Some people go one way and others go another. Some see one thing and others another.
Somewhere I know there is a fat guy in a red coat shaking a globe and laughing while he points at me and YOU.
