november

No news. Everything´s pretty much the same. I got my tourist visa renewed last weekend, which means I´ll actaully be able to stay in Brazil legally until I go back to the states for Christmas.

I went to church last night with Luana. The husband of the other employee here at school is the pastor of the Presbyterian church. We´d agreed to go a couple weeks ago but then ditched, so it was harder to dodge the second invite.

I guess most of the things I´ve been thinking about have to do with trying to observe things without attaching words or concepts to them, so I have a tough time putting the church experience into words. But all in all, it was nice to step in to a room where everyone was loved and accepted on the basis of their mere shared humanity. It´s so important to remember that all of our instincts for physical aggression and competition via hatred are pretty useless in a safe world. It´s actually okay -- and advantageous -- to accept everyone as family, or as Peter Singer puts it, to open up our circles of ethical consideration to the world. Sorry about the terrible writing style.