Inspiration

It’s funny when you live so far away from where you grew up. When you’re so far away from family and so far away from friends who you knew you when nothing much beyond Saturday morning cartoons, riding bikes, and playing driveway basketball mattered. It’s funny when you have to think in thousands of miles when you think of being home again. And it’s funny – not really “haha” funny – but odd when you find that your heart and mind are still there even though your body is so obviously present somewhere else. It almost makes me laugh when lucid dreams take me back to being 13 years old and – I swear – I can touch and feel him again, like he’s really there next to me in Grand Blanc, Michigan, but then I wake up somewhere else where I can’t even speak the language.

Then again, where and what is “home” anyway? They say it is where the heart is, but what of those who have had their heart split in two? What of all those D₄ dopamine receptors and DRD4-7Rs running amok out there? The penetrance of 7R/long alleles coursing through us for 40,000 years and counting. This is the gift of my great- great- great- great- great- great- (ad nauseam) grandmother. Thanks, grandma.

That said, I make the most of finding new inspirations where I can in my current home. Meeting new people, consuming previously-unspoken thoughts, digesting new sunsets, and swimming in new seas of emotion. Below is a random assortment of recent inspirations worth sharing.

Say Uncle

Secrets

I am an uncle. Twice now (soon to be thrice). I often wonder if I am a good uncle. I tell myself that I am, but there really isn’t an assessment out there to gauge my performance, so who knows. I try to send gifts and make calls to bridge those 3,800 miles, but I know that won’t be enough as they get older.

My niece is beautiful. She reminds me that there are so many little things in life to be excited about, like Hello Kitty. I love that her smile has the power to take me back to 1990 and make me a kid again. Every time I see her laugh I see my brother as a child again. My big brother and I laughing about something of no consequence, but laughing with our entire being, laughing with our entire souls.

Sir Edward Blue Eyes

My nephew is less than a year old, too young to know who I am yet, I suppose, but I hope that changes soon. I look forward to him enlightening me some day in the future about the challenges that kids his age face – how different will his struggle be from those of my day? How similar will they be?

Suesca

 

Road to nowhere

How is it that the skies here seem just a bit higher, or that much bluer? I guess two straight weeks of rain and clouds in Bogota can make the skies anywhere else pop.

Serious cirrus

I am the son/sun, and the heir/air

 Now and at the hour of our death

Full Figures

Well rounded

Medellin native, Fernando Botero, made a name for himself depicting the fuller side of life, yet as I walk the streets of Medellin I wonder from where he drew his inspiration. Is fullness happiness? Have we starved ourselves of life? How often have we denied ourselves happiness, fasting with devout piety and confusing our obedience for some sort of greater nobility? Or, is it simply that bigger is better? Either way, some girls are bigger than others.  

Hips don't lie

Adam and Eve 

Why do they have belly buttons? Think about it

Where is my mind?

Bootylicious

Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Medellín

Tinder's Greatest Hits

Before venturing to Colombia, I spent my fair share of time swiping on the Tinders. My foray into the dating app started one summer a couple of years back while living outside of the US, offering a welcomed respite from an otherwise slow stay in a new city where I did not know a single soul. Since then, my experiences setting the Tinder world on fire have run quite the gamut, from the awkward and uncomfortable to the pleasantly surprising.

After recently settling into my new home in Bogota, I quickly flashed back to that summer when Tinder first sparked a lover’s flame in my heart. My roommates and friendly colleagues at work made me feel welcomed to this new city, yet I yearned to spread my wings and explore all that my new home had to offer outside of the comfortable bubble of readymade friends and colleagues.

In deciding if you “like” someone or not, Tinder asks participants to judge one another based on a handful of pictures and a back-of-the-envelope description of who they are/what they (dis)like. To those interested (like me) in dissecting this otherwise superficial app beyond what it offers on its surface, exploring Tinder's role as a medium for social experimentation offers hours of intriguing contemplation. By creating miniature laboratories within our own little worlds, Tinder presents opportunities for our own thought-provoking anthropological analyses, helping those that are willing to dig beneath the surface to unearth interesting perspectives of today’s society.

What conclusions do you draw about a person after seeing the clothes they wear in their photos? What stereotypes guide the conclusions we draw about someone based on where they went to school? What do we think we know about someone based on the job they have? For example, if I show you a Tinder photo a 26-year-old, white guy dressed in khakis, a pink polo shirt, and a bow tie that graduated from Ole Miss you probably have a few good ideas on the kind of person you think he is – what music he listens to, his favorite foods, his preferred sports, and the like. You could be completely wrong, but, chances are, you’d be in the ballpark on a few things, even if you were as much the opposite of this guy as you think you could possibly be. The point being, if you grew up in the US, you’d likely have a few guiding markers driving your judgment, whether done consciously or subconsciously.

Now, take this same idea, but place yourself in a different country, culture, and context. What conclusions, if any, would you be able to draw about a person based on their photo while visiting a foreign land?  To you, their clothes may seem fashionable and attractive, whereas any local could easily tell you that, in fact, their clothes are outdated, meaning they likely come from a lower class. To you, a listed university of study may indicate nothing more than what city they once lived in, whereas a local could dissect this information to tell you what social class their family belongs to, what circle of friends they run with, what kind of job they probably have today, and how much money they make. 

Comparing these two scenarios, it is interesting to me that, in the former, I might feel comfortable thinking I can "place" someone, while in the latter I would freely admit I could not. Yet, in either of these situations I do not know the person at all. In many ways, I have found the obliviousness from the latter scenario very refreshing. My relative newness to Bogota means I can see people with fresh eyes, free of predisposition of who or what they are.

Philosophizing aside, I have come to note a few trends in the Colombian Tinder world that I find entertaining. Take note, ladies…

The baby bump

Kids, husbands/significant others, and families

The otherwise odd

Anime, always a winner

Dog Princess

And....whatever this is

Certainly, I am not the catch of all catches out there (in the real world, virtual world, or otherwise), but I like to think I bring a decent amount to the table. What’s a modern day renaissance man to do when he otherwise cannot be bothered with the usual bar scene in a new city? Start swiping of course…