One more day up in the canyon

"We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it." -William Osler-

A friend recently said that one of the qualities he most admired was the ability to live life to the fullest. I was thinking about that this afternoon, when I talked with T. T couldn't be more exuberant than when praising our creative writing class. He is 44 but looks to be 30. I consider him as an author and romantic at heart. He served in the police force for 13 years before succumbing to a crack cocaine addiction. He resigned and worked in a warehouse in order to make ends meet and continue to feed his addiction. Now, he's in an upward swing and in love once again. T regaled me with tales of his 3 year old granddaughter and how his relationship with his son has changed since he has come out of rehab. In a few months, he hopes to rejoin his old job and get married to his fiancee.

Walking back down Eager Street today reminded me of Mabija street. It's a typical Charm City street where people congregate on the front steps and stare at the racially different people who walk by. There are chain-link fences and brick rowhouses with brightly painted window frames. Paint is falling off the cheap liquor store on the corner. You can kick the empty metallic bags that once held individual servings of potato chips (regular and sour cream and onion, normally). More trash and other gristle lies on the sidewalks. The bricks are uneven, and I shudder to think of the effects on an auto's shocks. When I drive by this area at night, I'm always surprised to see the number of people who are just standing or sitting. Such constant inactivity is not necessarily off-putting, just unnerving. It's a different world.

It's not to say that I'm not extremely content right now. On the contrary, I am. I sincerely enjoy my somewhat surreal state. Today, I revisited, albeit briefly, Arisotelian ethics and the principle of virtue. I find inspiration in a statue in an institution that promises some of the best tertiary care in the world. In class, I find myself listening more than I talk. Education comes in the form of lectures, planned conferences, and the internet. It's a sheltered world, one that has more good than bad.

Many have said that they love to make a difference in the life of a child. I concur. Yet, today, out of my bubble, I felt as if I've added something to the world in the life of an adult. And this seemed more real to me than the rest of my day.