Leaving tomorrow, bound for Beijing. All ready to go. After an all-day jam session, I have the tech specs ready -- my bag is jammed full of samples of the millions of daily messages that zing back and forth between travel systems.
After two full days of meetings, I'll have 24 hours to bum around by myself, which I plan to jam pack with....something...
Because I spent yesterday biking, attending piano recital, having dinner with family, gabbing with friends, instead of planning my trip, I don't really have a plan. (But seriously, who could resist that Spring weather?!)
Hence, I'll be following the "five minute" jam session ideas I got today from a variety of people who have been there, from there. A recommended restaurant lined up, if I can find it. Hoping I can actually stay in the hotel another night. Hoping to avoid Dog instead of Duck, something my coworker got mixed up last time due to pronunciation barrier. Etc.
But, the thing is, I usually find adventure, whether I seek it or not, this trip is unlikely to be any different. In the past, I've landed myself in an earthquake in the coffee region of Colombia. Ended up in the guts of a cod trawler in an Iceland port. Accompanied fish inspectors on the North Atlantic coast. Delivered mail in a small boat in what turned out to be a bad storm to a small island somewhere above the arctic circle. Ended up in a careening 60 mile-an-hour bus crash into rice fields in Thailand, climbing out of the windows to get out. After speeding 100 miles an hour through red lights at 3 a.m. in Cairo, found myself at an amateur belly dancing contest. (I wasn't driving and I didn't enter...) and so on.
So I know, after travel that is jam packed with adventures, I will be, as I always glad to be back home -- where freedom reigns, and where my comfy bed gives me a great long sleep.
But what is on my mind tonight?
Lately, as my friends and coworkers will attest to, I've been careening into the different sorts of jam sessions. People whose conscience is jammed up, logger jammed, confused. We've all seen it before -- life is jammed packed full of choices of where to put our time, our heart, our energy. We all make those choices. But the question is where in all that do we place our conscience?
In the end, our life is bound by our conscience. We break it, we will pay. Something we've all learned, and never stop learning.
Last Friday, I saw it played out at work. I held firm on something I believed was right on a matter of principle, of clarity. The response was less than warm, hostile actually. Later that day, I got an email, an apology. I admire that person for it. Someone who can apologize, that's a strong heart. I really think there is nothing harder. It's easier to pretend. To ignore. To hide. To foist blame. It's brave to apologize, to say I'm sorry. It takes humility, guts, inner strength. If we go through life not apologizing, we will have lived in denial. We are imperfect. Our conscience is bound by the burning necessity to admit we screwed up. It's hard. We're trapped until we do. At the very least, our heart is. Our love definitely is.
This is one of the most powerful stories of an apology I have ever known. I wrote about him before. It's one thing to apologize about some silly work squabble, which I've had to do too. It's another to apologize about something that was truly about life, death, torture, evil. Redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation -- the most difficult adventure one could ever ever embark on, as it is an adventure of the heart. The hardest kind.
Safe travels to you! Have fun in Beijing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone could think like the man you wrote about?
Posted by: Ky Woman | April 22, 2008 at 04:04 AM