Tension and Release

The past few days have been a little tense here. Ana mentioned one night that the police had gone on strike. I thought she was referring to the tiny group of private police that patrol her neighborhood, which didn't seem all that big of a deal. However when I started noticing it was all the news here was reporting on, I knew it was something bigger. Had the police force of the entire city (of 4 million) gone on strike, I asked? Well, no. The police force of the entire state had gone on strike. It became quite ominous here. The streets were empty everywhere. Friends that were going to come visit us all cancelled their plans until this was resolved. Even the public buses stopped running, as it was no longer safe to be on the unprotected streets. Most stores in the city shut their gates to the public as robberies were becoming commonplace. The Brazilian government even sent military forces here, which in America would be called a State of Emergency.

I have to be honest, I sometimes get cabin fever here. Whether my perception is illusory or not, I don't always feel the same freedom to just wander around aimlessly as I'm used to, especially now with Ben. This police strike just added to my cabin fever, which kind of culminated this morning when I just became a heaping Ubergrouch of a Bundt. My grouchiness was only compounded because I was knowingly breaking my own ideal of being able to be happy anywhere; that peace should come from within. The strike finally ended this morning fortunately, but I remained a grouch nonetheless for some reason.

We then came over to stay at Ana's sister's place, where we would meet Vladimir and Karinny, a married couple that Ana is very close with and has known for a long time. Ana has told me for years that she can't wait for us to meet, as she knew I'd love them. They live in Canada now but happened to be visiting the same time we are. They are that couple that you feel comfortable with immediately. We spoke in Portuguese for a while about travel, but when Ana mentioned I had recently applied for a Masters program in Science and Religion, everything changed to English (theirs is far better than my Portuguese) and Vladimir and I unkowingly forsook the women altogether. Vladimir is a fellow programmer who is also in love with theology and philosophy like I. We would have talked until tomorrow if there were no time constraints. The cool thing about meeting someone with these interests is that there becomes immediate brotherhood in milennia of shared thought. I would say even more so, theology and philosophy really being embedded in humans since consciousness began, these interests connect us at the deepest level. I was bummed when they left, but horribly thankful to have met them both.

And just like that, my cabin fever was gone. I was subsequently reminded of my cousin Brandon, whose life has been positively transformed more than I can explain, and honestly I think more than I've ever even heard of. As he explains, it is all only a result of his grasping onto spirituality for dear life. He notes that today his joy is in making new relationships and sharing in that shining light with others. Today proved his philosophy to me.