Destination: India

Last winter, a year ago in January, we were sitting on a very windy Crissy Field and playing a name game. As a way of describing people from school without having to use their real identity, since speaking publicly about a cohort of professionals with relatively high-profile positions in our community is not so discrete, we created a series of nicknames. We used these names not for any form of slander or disrespect but just because it felt not quite right to go to dinner at Ebisu and tell a story about someone with whom we worked in a way that anyone could hear. Based not on some coded version of initials or on appearance or anything else that might be detectable by someone listening these nicknames assigned each person a country based on their personality. And, of course we had to have nicknames ourselves! So we named each other based on our observations and perceptions, and much to my surprise I became Miss India.

Why? Because I can feel far away but whoever comes to visit feels instantly at home once they arrive. Because I look messy and complicated on the outside sometimes but deep within have a strong sense of self. Because I can be curry-hot or mango-sweet. Because I can blend into the those around me when I choose but when cleaning up for holidays and festivals I can very surprisingly stand out among the crowd.

Now, as I think about the time I have left before I go back to work at camp in two months I want to travel one more time. I went to Yosemite and I went to Israel, as I had planned, and in the end I did not go to Ghana even though it was a big part of what I had thought would happen this year. I have spent a lot of time going places and seeing things and doing work that I felt I should, that I thought would benefit me professionally and in turn the community in which I was living as well. This time, on my next and perhaps--for this year, anyway--final trip, I would like to go to India. Not just because I was named for it but because it has both engaged and mystified me for awhile now, long before that winter day at Crissy Field. I have enough time to go and I am about to have enough money so as not to worry the entire way there and back. I might even have a traveling companion, something I have been without on the trips I have taken so far this year. So this week: school. Next week: working on this new project, moving to my next house, and exploring options for the fall. After that: cooking at Esalen. And then: going away to India? I hope so--I think I would really like it there.