Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Pleasant Oddness of a Geographical Passion

One of my office partners has gone to South Africa for three weeks. She's teaching, studying, and helping to organize an event. She has long wanted to go there and has been working on arranging it for years. I'm not sure why that was the spot in all the world.

Why are some Americans Anglophiles and some Francophiles? Why did I become obsessed with India? These are not purely rhetorical questions. I do wonder what in my personality or background or DNA pointed me to South Asia, produced in me an Indomania. But much more important than ever figuring out why is following bliss in whatever directions it points, in figuring out how to get there and what needs to be made of the experience.


South Africa - Music Legends - Ladysmith Black Mambazo




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2 comments:

kenju said...

I believe that soul memories lead us to favor one area over another.

Unknown said...

I have no sense that I was in India in previous life. I do have something like that about Ireland, France, and the Lower East Side.

A shaman with no knowledge of this from me once volunteered that I should go to Derry, that a spirit was telling her that I lived there in a previous life and need to go. Haven't made it there yet.

Do you have any soul memories/place affinities, Kenju?