nerd alert

In a little less than a month, I will be in graduate school. It's both terrifying and exciting. I actually enjoyed studying for the GREs, as I confessed in a vlog, and as such am thoroughly looking forward to learning in an academic setting again. I'm even thrilled with my required reading: The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry). I highly recommend the book, too! Although I haven't quite finished (it is not a quick read), I am finding it absolutely fascinating and filled with countless things we all should really be more aware of. Anyway :)...

You may not know this already, but I'll be working towards a Master of Arts in Global Communications. Why? Because, as I've said before, I believe most of the world's problems could be avoided were it not for our own inability to understand one another. I personally seek new experiences and cultures in order to expand my own understanding. And I use this blog as a means to (hopefully) promote yours. The other day, my brother "the philosopher" gave me a passage from Suzuki's Studies in Zen. It's amazing how much it speaks to my scholarly motivations:

"As long as we are gregarious animals, and therefore social and rational, everything we experience, be it an idea, an event, or a feeling, we desire to communicate to one another, and this is possible only through a medium. We have developed various mediums of communication, and those who can command them at will are leaders of humandkind: philosophers, poets, artists of all kinds, writers, orators, religionists, and others. But these mediums must be substantiated, must be backed by real personal experiences. Without the latter, mediums are merely utilized and will never vibrate with vitality. 

Some mediums are more readily counterfeited than others, being subject to all devices of ingenious simulation. Language as one such medium lends itself most easily to misrepresentation, intentional or otherwise. The highest and most fundamental experiences are best communicated without words; in the face of such experiences we become speechless and stand almost aghast.

Another consideration on the subject of means of communication is that however eloquent a medium may be it will not have the desired effect on anyone who never had an experience somewhat similar in kind although fainter in intensity. Like a pearl thrown before swine, eloquence is wasted. On the other hand, if two people have had an experience of the same nature, the lifting of a finger will set the whole spiritual mechanism in vibration, and each can read the other's inner thought."