...epilogue...

Epilogue
August 11th, 2010 Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The final theme song: “Lullaby” by Sia
The final quote: “The Royal Spanish academy defines the word ‘impossible’ as something that doesn’t have the facilities or means to come to pass… or succeed.
And they define ‘improbable’ as something implausible….that isn’t founded on prudent reason.
Given the choice, I prefer the improbable over the impossible.
Like everyone does, I suppose.
That David beat Goliath was improbable, but it happened.
An African-American living in the White House was improbable, but it happened.
That the band ‘Baron Rojo’ would ever play together again was improbable, but it happened.
Nadal taking the number one spot from Federer.
A journalist becoming a princess
The 12-1 win against Malta
That’s why I don’t like to talk about impossible, but improbable.
Because the improbable is by definition probable
That which most certainly wont happen… can actually happen.
And while there is a chance, half a chance in a billion, that it can actually happen…
…its worth a try.”
–That was so ridiculous who said that that you don’t even want to know what it is from


I like epilogues. It’s a whiff of the story you are never actually supposed to hear. The line after “happily ever after….” The drink after last call… The true proof that no matter where you end up in the story of your life there is no “The End”
Life… for better or for worse, will just keep going on. Though this blog (and if I ever turn it into a book) already has a “The End” to it….i felt a final entry of what has happened and what is to come was in order. I take my inspiration for that kind of thinking from Frank McCourt’s far better but lesser known “Teacher Man” where his epilogue is “…ill try.”
For a month I lived in my mothers basement in Vienna, Virginia. Your typical 30 year old single boy living in your mothers basement. How proud and mighty the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are…. I try to think of another 30 year old single man volunteering to live at home with his mother. The only person who came to mind is Jesus…..technically that’s my name too.
So anyway… my lifelong friends were days away from their third child, Obama had become unpopular, new problems in the world had been discovered and by in large everyone and everything just felt the same but with a new set of parameters….
Oh…but now everything was expensive as all hell! I was a cheap bastard before I left for service, and after living off less than 5 dollars a day for two years the concept of paying for some of the things in America that cost more than 5 dollars was literally insane. I saw 16 year old cars driving SUV’s by themselves without the vehicle being stuffed to the rafters as she drove from one end of a mall parking lot to another end to avoid walking. I see pavement leading to each and every persons home, which is not made of felt. I see green and trees that will still be that color in the winter and the sky looks so much further away. I don’t fear dogs anymore, I can eat hummus at every meal (which I do) and my bed…my bed is bliss incarnate.
So a lot of changes right? Not really. Instead I see that the essentials of life in America are right about the same as in Mongolia, and its only details and semantics about abstract ideas like “comfort” “necessity” and “danger” that are so contrasting. We can all pretend we are as different from one another as we would like. You can keep your accent, eat a different food and march in all the nationality parades that you would like, but from one end of the world to the other everyone to me is exactly the same but with a different set of environments and economic and lifestyle upbringings.
I wanted to do more Peace Corps, but as usual dream jobs got in the way. I mean it too. Much like before I left for Peace Corps service I don’t know where the answers I am seeking out of life are but Peace Corps at least taught me it does not come from a geography and profession switch. I did however find Peace Corps service to be the most rewarding things I have ever done…by far. Yet my Masters Degrees, weather tolerance, administration experience, indifference to salaries and Spartan lifestyle ate right through a 9% unemployment rate and got me work at a dream job in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. You know now that I say that city name…that seriously could pass for a Mongolian town name!
“Josh, haanaas ircen?”
(Josh, Where did you come from?)
“be oo?? Be Tuscaloosaas ircen”
(me?? I’m from Tuscaloosa)
Think of it like replacing a town title as long as Bagakhangai with a word like Tuscaloosa. You see, even worlds apart they things we name don’t sound all that different if you roll them on your tongue long enough!!!!
My apartment is far beyond anything I deserve or need. I think President Elberdorj of Mongolia has a smaller and less luxurious place than I do now. There is a lesson in that for everyone….even Elberdorj if you ask me…
I may have taken a dream job now, but I don’t think Peace Corps and I are done. Peace Corps is 50 years old, and once I get a doctor title in my name and do some amazing research and help some young adults with some difficult periods of their lives I see myself drawn to Peace Corps again at some point or another.
Before I joined Peace Corps I was doing a job I loved. Now I am my old’s jobs boss. Helping supervise a group of people dedicated to providing a healthy and safe living environment for a group of young adults from all walks of life who are all at different stages of moral development grow and learn and become a part of a community that they are proud of. Sounds like a good way to spend a portion of my life, and I might just learn grow a little more myself in the process.
My stuff is all in a pile in my apartment. I have moved a great number of times over the last five years. Each time upon “moving” I would have a mound of things to put away, but it was this “pile” image that I never seem to shake all that much.
I just drove from Vienna, Virginia to Greensboro, North Carolina and from there today to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in my grandfathers ole 1995 red colored Ford Taurus with all my worldly possessions. The license plate says “THE RED5” I guess I really am never going to grow up am I? At some point or another I guess I need to take all of my odds and ends out of boxes and turn it into a place that one day ill put back into boxes again. That’s not a sad feeling to me…rather one that reminds you of how awesome each new place is.
About a year ago I was moving from an apartment to a ger, and the year before that from a house to that apartment. In the last 5 years I have lived/worked/stayed in Washington DC, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, New York City, Mongolia, Hong Kong, back to Washington DC and now I call Tuscaloosa, Alabama home. After a combo like that what on Earth could possibly top that for my next home?

…home… you would be amazed how abstract and amazing that word is if you think about it long enough.

Final words??? Uh…never piss into the wind (Okay so maybe I did learn a little in Mongolia)

Nah…the parting words are like the ones I once wrote before. It’s the thing that my time in Peace Corps taught me without ever saying the words. The most important thing to remember is that there is no bad way to live your life. There are no wasted years unless you tell yourself they were wasted; there are no golden years unless you call them that. They are all wasted or all golden because you say so, so say they all rock for crying out loud and no matter what you did during them.
Whether you were/are/will be say…. a rolling stone like me, or a family man like my life friends and a family of 5 at the age of 30 David and Martha. Rich or poor, humble or flamboyant, CEO or PCV, occupational or unemployed, blue, white or green collared (google it)….none of these are better or worse. Make them all important, make them all good. There is no bad so long as YOU choose to like them. It’s life, its YOUR life! Don’t ever lose track of how cool absolutely everything is that is going on right here and now.

So that’s it everyone. Hope you enjoyed this….







…bye…