If two years in that insulated snow globe taught me anything, it is appreciation. I cannot explain how much more deeply I savor life after that place. I enjoy the simple pleasure of being able to get any kind of food I want in minutes. I live for the times when I'm alone in my car listening to whatever music I feel like with the windows down. I love having a coffee alone just for the chance to sit down on the sidewalk with the sun in my face and people streaming by. I feel accomplished in a way I never did before when I now truly work at something and succeed at it (I've learned to be a kickass bartender this summer). I relish every moment I get to sit in my beautiful garden and write a few pages of whatever I feel like writing. I listen closely to the stories of others and fall in love with the connections we all share. I covet a stolen minute to read another page of a book I am reading for its intrinsic value rather than the grade I'll get on the essay about it. Life is magnified, detailed, enormous, and most importantly, just so alive.
I wonder if it is sad that I needed Norway to tell me all of these things. Or maybe it is not sad, only natural. Or maybe it is not natural but amazing and wonderful. I am not sure. I do know that I wholeheartedly believe that there was no where else I could have learned more about humanity than at that school. And universally loving humanity, agape, is the highest love of all, according to the most passionate romantics in history, the ancient Greeks. I do not know if anyone can truly universally love all of humanity, but beginning to understand a bit about all of it and what the word "humanity" even means must be a good start to loving all of it. To love, to appreciate, one must understand. I have begun to understand and for the first time, I can finally begin to truly, deeply appreciate.
On a side note, if you have not already, go read "Socrates in Love: Philosophy for a Passionate Heart", "Zorba the Greek", and "La Sombra del Viento". In any language, in any way, it doesn't matter. Just read them. Now.
"I endeavored to lead a different type of life, to interest myself in practical work, to know and love the human material which had fallen into my hands, to feel the long-wished-for joy of no longer having to deal with words but with living men."-Zorba
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