aspiring

I've been thinking a lot lately about trying.  Essentially, how much of our trying are we willing to factor into judgement?  I find it very heartening that most people I know are really willing to consider effort before evaluating.  Perhaps it is because of this that we are willing to forgive one another.  Intentions are crucial:  they have only a certain bearing on what the final results of our actions are, but they are terribly important in how we react in a subjective world. 

Also, the French have a different keyboard than Americans and you can change the functions of the keys on a Macbook to be like a French keyboard.  So, I did that last night, but I made it so that I can tell what I'm doing by putting tape over all the keys that are different.  It is not easy!  I am starting to get the hang of it, but all the punctuation is different (you have to hit the shift button to get a period...) and the letters to the far left and far right are different so I have re-learn the way my brain and fingers work around a keyboard.  It's good for my dendrites and neurons.  And also, when I study abroad in Senegal, it's going to be a French intensive, so I'll be all set for that.  I might even forget how to type in English.  

I went to a play last weekend and this was in the programme:

"When all is said and done, for me, the heart of the story is this: Our country was founded on profound and radical principles of liberty and equality, which we have not been willing or have not been ready to live by.  Perhaps this is because they have been too ambitious for our reach or too ahead of our evolution as a people or species.  We have achieved extraordinary power as a nation and made every sort of progress, but at the expense of those principles by exploiting and oppressing a large portion of the population.  At the same time, there is a relentless struggle and movement toward the alignment with the alignment with those founding principles if only by infinitesimal degrees." -- N.  Keystone

Food for thought.