20100120-1200

Just reached cruising altitude on the Air France flight into [Los Angeles international airport]. A little disturbed that I wil have to get/pay my own way home from LAX, but oh well. Pretty sure the dates were known ahead of time, but for some reason nobody (myself included) remembers that mom, dad, and Viana all work the day I fly in. I got the Amtrak schedule, but it calls for a couple of hours at Union Station.

At [Charles De Gaul international airport] (Paris), I was weirded out by extra security at my gate. Like Beirut and Amman, they only let you in after a certain time, but I got the feeling that such is business as usual in Jordan and Lebanon. At Paris, they...

...closed off only a few gates and had a kind of ad-hoc checkpoint set up. Maybe that was the reason for my five hour layovers...

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about Empire. In Rome, there was a lingua franca (Greek and Latin at varying times). Today (thanks as well to the British and American empires), it is English. It was all over the place in Amman. Besides the fact that my coffee spot only had an English name, the place across the street, “Sultan Snax,” had an Arabic name transliterated from its English name: [“sultan snacks” sounded out in Arabic letters]

It is really vexing to look at history and see the parallels.

I also have been thinking about the Guild a lot. Mostly how I can spread the good news of our existence and mission. I still have a vague idea of inviting Derek Webb to be a commissioner to the Truth Commission on Conscience in War (TCCW). Music is one field that can certainly stand to gain some recognition as a form of political engagement. Also have been thinking a lot more about creating members and growing our ranks a bit. This would take a lot of work I think. Lots of stuff I have on the back burners, and if I can accomplish some of them before the TCCW, that would be awesome.