Starting Over

Shifting gears by necessity. Attempting somehow to jettison the detritus that was slowing me down, I had the idea of backing up, wiping clean and reinstalling only what was necessary. It seemed a simple enough proposition and even seemed to be going rippingly well. But when it came right down to it, some of the baby was thrown out with the bath water. I had to start over.

And I had to start over on several fronts.

That was a couple of years ago, when I’d first returned to Afghanistan, and the idea of rebooting and starting fresh was very appealing. Since that time, I’ve been rebooting, reconnecting, rebuilding and settling in.

But now it’s time for a new reboot and some new re-focused reconnecting. It’s time to leave Afghanistan once again and to branch out into new territory. But this time, I’m not throwing out the whole mass and starting with a blank slate. I’ll be taking with me new lessons learned, new ways of doing things, new ways of looking at the world and ways of interacting with it. New links upon which I can build new connections.

One never truly leaves Afghanistan, and I’m sure I’ll be back one day. Meanwhile, I’ll borrow a bit of this amazing and frustrating, confounding and inspiring country and take it with me. Let’s see where it takes me.

jls