Ziraleetations

“Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.” -Reagan

And you wonder why I run out of things to blog about… Just kidding. It’s only Monday and I’m blogging so… Actually today started and ended very differently. On my way to work I was contemplating how I will only do the home-state dept trek 4 more times. As I trudged through the bitter cold wind, that was not a sad thought at all. The routine of getting up early, commuting over an hour, working late… arriving home exhausted and starting over again… There is a part of me that is very much ready for a break. Throughout the day I became less ready. I almost embarrassed myself by crying at staff mtg when the Ambassador came just to the mtg to present me with a appreciation certificate and said he hadn’t realized I was finishing this week (he’d been out for 2 weeks in Vietnam until today) and that was the worst news he’d received since he’d returned…even worse than the Vietnamese holding up negotiations by refusing to include necessary verbage in the binding agreement. Laughing in disbelief is always better than crying anyway. I can’t say I feel deep emotional bonds with any of my coworkers, but its strange that what has become my territory, my relationships, my responsibilities, my life for even a short period of time, I will now abruptly leave behind, turning in my badge and walking out the door for what will probably be the last time. As my short-lived “political career” draws to a close, I must agree with Reagan on another point: “Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”

This week really has turned out to be the best week to wrap up the State Dept work for many reasons, one of which being both office directors will be out next week and I would probably find myself rather bored were I to come in. This is also the week we are wrapping up everything related to decisions on actions against/with the CPCs (religious persecution blacklist) for the year which is the area most of my work has stemmed from. I’ve been working on some preparation and research for the Ambassador’s commencement speech at Gordon-Conwell, and today he gave me a book on Adoniram Judson to read (I guess he read it like 20 yrs ago but remembers little) so I can use material from it in drafting the speech. I started it on my way home tonight and couldn’t put it down. It was written in 1957 and I love a good missionary biography so that should be really good. If I don’t finish my work on the speech before Friday, I’ll just continue that until I’m done. Matt is out really really sick this week—he came back from Vietnam with an inner ear infection and the flu- so I’ll be helping cover his responsibilities in all the post-trip Vietnam activity flurry. I also have the process of going through my files and distributing accumulated information to the appropriate staff members. I can’t believe how many materials I have accumulated in just a few months. Crazy.

Did you know there was a country name without any vowels? Kyrgyz. Try pronouncing it. It sounds like something Jim Henson came up with…

Backtracking, I never mentioned much of what I did this weekend…but I didn’t do that much really. Friday I worked pretty late and tried to get to bed early. Saturday I did my all-morning laundry routine and watched While you were Sleeping and reaffirmed my opinion that is one of the all-time best chic-flicks ever. Then I went to Starbux to study, which is the last time I posted since I forgot the files I needed to study. Then I did half my grocery shopping at one store, and came back to the house to study. Sunday, I went to church, of course, and that was really good. Worship was good, and Pastor Mark is doing a series on physics and faith and using a lot of really thought-provoking parallels between the natural and spiritual realms. He did physics as an undergrad student, so he has lots of really fascinating information to integrate. My thought for the week came from the sermon: Right now I don’t feel any sense of motion whatsoever. However, I am spinning at a speed of 1000mph, traveling 67,000 mph through space. I will travel 1.3 million miles today. So are/will you. No wonder I’m so exhausted tonight! Just kidding, but seriously, when was the last time at the end of the day I thought “Whew, the earth made it through another orbit without getting thrown off path.” Ironic how we trust God for the big things and worry about the things that are so little in the perspective of the universe. It sounds so childish, but it still makes me feel really small to try and imagine the size of the universe. On the other hand, it also makes it all the more amazing that His thoughts of me are as the grains of sand…

Back to my ever-so-exciting weekend… after church I went across the street the Postal Museum, which was on my “list to check out” for my time in DC. It was a rather impressive surprise, extensive, well done, and fascinating. I thought it would be all stamps, but there is just one stamp room (which has all the international stamps for like a 100 yrs so that’s pretty cool) and the rest is more about the transportation of the mail, the evolution of the system, the legislation, the stories of accidents and people who’ve died delivering the mail, letters from war… well, sounds boring but it’s not, I really enjoyed it and spent a few hours in there. Then I went to starbux and for real did homework for a couple hours, came back and listened to Central’s Sunday night service on the internet while I did homework, and then had some really good time with God. Speaking of which, I think I’ll wrap this up now cause that sounds more fun.