Welcome back to me
So here I am back home in Bogotá after 23 days away in Cartagena. And it does indeed have the familiarity of home. I was in Cartagena for a combination of work, holidaying, an AIESEC conference, and then 2 more days of holidaying. During the 12 days that made up the holidaying-conference-holidaying stage, I was on the internet only once, for a grand total of 30 minutes. What really surprised me when I got back to Bogotá and back online again was the realisation that I didn't actually miss anything of importance at all. Going two weeks without checking email, reading blogs, randomly browsing, or reading online newspapers is not the disaster that it's made out to be.
In fact it was remarkably pleasant, and the sort of thing that should be done more often. I was in a great place, with great company, having a great time, not following a tight agenda each day, and concerned more or less only with that moment and that place, happy to take bugger all interest in reading about the rest of the world. The largest news story of those 12 days, the bombings in London, I managed to learn about through a cable television news network that was playing in the background during the AIESEC conference. It made me realise that almost every news story really does have a 15 minute lifespan, and it makes me wonder why I read the news online so eagerly each day when I am at the office.
There is something to be said for being selective about the things you choose to care about. I'm going to need to give this more thought (because on the other hand, I like reading and being well-informed, and knowing as much as I can about everything, past and present).
In the meantime, a few photos of my time in Cartagena can be found here. I particulary like the Egyptian themed sand structures that were made on the beach. Not quite the real thing (see contrast below), but very impressive nonetheless. Cheers.
In fact it was remarkably pleasant, and the sort of thing that should be done more often. I was in a great place, with great company, having a great time, not following a tight agenda each day, and concerned more or less only with that moment and that place, happy to take bugger all interest in reading about the rest of the world. The largest news story of those 12 days, the bombings in London, I managed to learn about through a cable television news network that was playing in the background during the AIESEC conference. It made me realise that almost every news story really does have a 15 minute lifespan, and it makes me wonder why I read the news online so eagerly each day when I am at the office.
There is something to be said for being selective about the things you choose to care about. I'm going to need to give this more thought (because on the other hand, I like reading and being well-informed, and knowing as much as I can about everything, past and present).
In the meantime, a few photos of my time in Cartagena can be found here. I particulary like the Egyptian themed sand structures that were made on the beach. Not quite the real thing (see contrast below), but very impressive nonetheless. Cheers.
Pyramids in Cairo
Pyramids in Cartagena
3 Comments:
welcome back Dan, and congrats on the haircut :P
There is a case for being extremely selective about what you care about. There is a limit on the amount of information you can take in over any period of time, and were you to attempt to care about all of it you'd spend a large percentage of your days wandering around fuzzily caring non-specifically about Bad Things, without knowing anything much about them (Think Miss Universe candidates but much worse looking in a dress). Limiting what you care about allows you to gain enough expertise in one or two areas to do something about whatever you care about, even if that's just telling other people what the situation is in clear, rational terms (not enough of that going on these days). It also puts a sharp halt to that general malaise that some Westerners feel about their position in life (I'm only doing well because X-percent of the world is unhappy), if only because you find the root causes have more to dowith the actions of individuals or small groups than society as a whole.
You know, I find it interesting that you think you can choose what you care about. I always figured caring to be an innate reaction, not something that could be controlled. Hmm.
In other news, glad you had a good time!
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