¨Lo pase bien¨ or ¨It was a good time.¨

I spent last week in Buenos Aires with three friends from NYC, hence the lack of posting. It was an awesome time. We walked around the city, hung out, BS´ed, and saw the breaka breaka almost everyday for a week. The nightlife in BsAs runs wild and deep, deep into the morning, so we did our best to dance the night away, literally. Besides hob nobbing with well dressed Porteños the fellas were pretty swank themselves. They were staying in the Four Seasons….oh la la. I stayed with some friends living in the city and then on the floor of the fellas room for the last two nights. Since I am the poor friend and will be in the midst of deciding on a career, my buddy G… wanted to remind me of the good life. Or at least what life is like with a little cash to spare. To wet my palette with luxury, on our final night, we sat by the pool smoked tasty Cuban cigars and sipped a smooth well aged scotch. Not going to lie it was delicious and for a moment I saw the flash of money bags in my eyes, but alas I don´t think I will so easily be lured to a life of riches. Yet we will see. Ten hours later through the night time blackness I arrived in Cordoba.

I am closing out my time in Cordoba. Only four days remain. I have been wrapping up my classes, saying good bye and taking a few pictures. The first photos of the entire trip. We have an asado planned for the weekend and then I head out for the south. It´s a 50 hour bus ride to the end of the earth. The furthest south one can travel with out a boat to Antartica. The weatherman said it was slightly below freezing on Tierra del Fuego and slightly above freezing where we are planning our first camping trip. The plan is to take a few multi-day camping trips around the mountains, glaciers, lakes, and volcanoes. I bought some boots. Apparently there may still be some snow in these below freezing conditions. I imagine it will be awesome.

Boing

The human body can be like a rubberband or a slinky or one of those new concoctions created by avante garde chefs biting of food science to make foie gras knots. I have seen my yoga teacher a seemingly normal individul tie herself into virtual knots and practically bend herself over into quarters. I have seen some of the better rock climbers at the wall twist centrifugally grasping for the next hold stretched outlandishly between points. The limits of the human body are to be noted and appreciated.

I suppose the human mind works in similar fashion. The more use and excercise it gets the more nimble and flexible it becomes. I have been receiving emails from my soon to be lawyer friends containing paragraphs of words that look similar to the contorted bodies described above. All this excercise is seemingly beneficial when applied correctly. Then how do we excercise the soul?

The strengthening of mind and body seem to be somewhat formulaic. Stretch, work out, hydrate for the body. Read, do your homework, practice for the mind. However in either of these sitiuation when the application of the excercise goes awry the maleffects are felt acutely. Incorrect training leads to contusions, sprain, pull, breakage, dehydration and at its worst death. Did you see the 20 something top ranked marathoner who recently died during Olympic trials in NY? It’s even more common to fail at education. Wrote memorization of facts, reading with out comprehension, lack of real world connection and applicability, and teaching to the test produces a brain incapable of comprehending the problems and issues of a complex world. Test scores, I believe are a neccessity, but I often wonder about the more charismatic part if the story.

So back to the soul. How is the soul nurtured and developed to produce similar personal benefits such that we are able to produce with mind and body? Lets not kid oursleves, it feels good to have a well oiled body and mind so I imagine we want the same with part number three of our human clay. We are all fully aware of the negatives resulting from lack of soul...hate crimes, terrorism, stifled scientific inquiry, lack of openess, repressed thought, methodical extermination. These seem to be very much religiously affiliated. Does soul have to equal religious inquiry? We, as in humans, used to celebrate the earth instead of God. Earth was the creator and giver of life. Some people meditate on a journey towards Nirvana. Others inflict self injury to assure their existence and this serves as there meditation. Some congregate in mega spaces and listen to a self proclaimed purveyor of faith. Who gave him his credentials? Must have been god, when the rest of us weren’t looking. We seem to seek purpose and meaning for our existence. I think therefore I am. Or I think therefore I must come up with some reason why I am able to think? And since we lack any sort of true proof of why we are here we fabricate all sorts of beautiful stories. I think our ability reason is also a punishment leaving us with an endless why.

I worked on the yearbook in highschool. We had one edition called Mind, Body, and Soul. I think there was a hole on the cover. A new form of yearbook marketing, edgy and artistic. Or maybe a window to soul of the book. However it looked somebody took a shotgun to the body and thankfully didn’t destroy and student minds. These three, notice so many good things come in threes, ideas/concepts/things appear to constitute our existence. That yearbook summarized my HS existence. There was a hole in it....right next to the mind, body, and soul.