Do I dare to eat a peach?

This is an experiment. As part of an effort to be less lazy about thinking Deep Thoughts and keeping in touch, I’m jumping onto the blog bandwagon – it seems to be all the rage with the kids these days. I have no idea whether this will work, or be of interest to myself or anyone else. Fortunately, the coolest person I know has decided to humor me by co-blogging, which bodes well for the success of this venture.

To start, I’m setting a few ground rules for as long as we all shall last in this experiment:

1. Live by the Bible at all times.
2. Try to not be boring or intellectually lazy.
3. Mentally recite rules 1 and 2 while brushing my teeth every morning.

In some part, this blog will fall into time-honored genre of meredithinthephilippines.blogspot.com, with updates on my misadventures in the Far East intended to terrify my parental unit and various aunts and nannies.

I’m hoping, however, that much of it will be devoted to less topical ruminations on issues that Glynis and I are thinking about. My plan of action is outlined below. Glynis may blog about books and music and college life, and hopefully will argue with me about politics a bit. But I’ll let her speak for herself when she makes her first post.

As for me, there are a few broad, interconnected topics about which I plan to think and write:

1. Life in the Philippines, and in particular, the experience of living in a place where I can’t blend into the crowd, no matter what I do. I’ll be learning to speak Visaya, and attempting to live on something approximating Filipino terms in food, language and lifestyle. I’ll let you know how it goes. Be prepared for lots of gushing about the glories of the jeepney.
2. A number of people I respect – including my co-blogger – have told me that I don’t understand the importance of the a-rational, philosophically or personally. This is true. I’m engaged in a year-long reading project to broaden my thinking on this point (as directed by a number of those respected individuals). Look here for pseudo-philosophical mumbling about culture, gender, and race, among other things.
3. I’ve been planning for a while to sit down and think seriously about why the heck I care about economic development in the third world, and what I conceivably have to offer in this field which is rife with intellectual heavy-weights. This may involve a bit of news/research commentary, a bit of travel story telling, and hopefully a lot of thinking how economic and political development happens and what I’m planning to do about it in my life.

For those who prefer real travel stories minus the post-adolescent ramblings about The Meaning of Life, never fear. I’ll send out occasional emails with amusing anecdotes and health and safety status updates.

Over the next few days, keep an eye out for an introduction by Glynis, and preliminary posts by me on the three topics above.