Dear Kevin,
I hope this letter finds you well. I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get back to you - I have been crazy busy for the last several weeks. I was in a play - Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" - which was pretty much my life. It's over now, though, which gives me some much needed free time.
First, I'll give you some updates from my life. As you know, I spent my January session in Mexico. I was taking Spanish classes down there and just generally enjoying the sun and beach - we have neither in Indiana in January. I also got to visit some Mayan ruins, which were really interesting, and of course the food was amazing. Unfortunately, I also caught a Malaria-like disease called Dengue Fever, which had me out of action for a week. I thought it funny that I got Dengue in Mexico, since when I was in Costa Rica last January there was a big scare about it but I was fine there. Dengue is mosquito-borne, and I guess if you get it a second time there's a 30% chance it will kill you.
The trip helped me decide something, though. I'm going to study in Mexico starting this September, for at least a semester and possibly a year. I'm not sure how we'll stay in touch, but I'll figure something out.
In other news, I got an internship in Elgin, IL for the summer. It starts in early June, and as soon as I find out where I'm staying I'll get you the address. Sorry I keep jumping around... eventually I'll settle down. Anyway, I'll be working for The Messenger, the Church of the Brethren news magazine.
So how are you? What's been going on lately? What's it like there? Obviously you don't have to answer these questions if you don't want to, but I am interested in you as a person and I do care about you. I also know you don't talk very much about yourself, though, so you don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to.
You asked quite some time ago what I would do to change the world if I could, and to not answer with "world peace." Fair enough. I think before we can have world peace, we need world justice. I think world peace is prevented by corruption of leadership, power differentials, poverty gaps, oppression... a lack of justice. I don't know. Justice might be a word you would consider overused or abused... I certainly think the Justice System could use a lot more justice. To me, the primary element of justice is the recognition of the infinite worth of every individual, and I don't think the courts have that. Then again, all I'm going on is Law & Order reruns, a high school law class and whatever I pick up with my peace studies major. You're probably much more an expert than I am.
My dad once told me "if you want peace, work for justice." I'm not sure exactly what he meant... he's a mayor and sometimes hints that he'd like me to become a cop (ha!), so he may not have been referring to the social justice and equality focus that is much more my thing. At any rate, I didn't like the saying at the time because I'd recently heard a lot of "justice" talk being used to talk up invading Iraq. It was only later that I came to understasnsd the importance of a different kind of justice.
As long as the poor wait at the gates while the rich feast on ten times their share, there will be no peace. As long as we would rather hit back than understand why someone hit us in the first place, as long as our leaders govern and we merely follow, as long as our simple greed and fear are causing the unnecessary deaths of thousands every day, we cannot possibly think to have peace.
As for what I can do... well, I can't change the world. I am one young man with big dreams, disappointingly little motivation, a lack of patience and a quick temper to boot. But I can do my part, and hope that thousands of other dreamy, angry young men do theirs until something gives way.
What's my part? Community peace. Community justice. All I can do is apply my grand vision for the world to how I treat those around me, to how I live my life in the here and now. One kind word can make a big difference. Gandhi said, "be the change you wish to see in the world." This is a step up from the Golden Rule. Treating others as you'd like to be treated is one thing, but to act as you wish ALL others to act is a higher standard, for we always hold our society to a higher standard than we do ourselves.
I hope that you are doing well, and I look forward to hearing from you again.
Your friend,
Nicolas
