Life is short, but sweet for certain

My "second semester" here in the land of Pura Vida is experiencing an unexpected break this weekend.  As I write this post, I sit in SJO waiting for my flight.  When I checked in, the attendant informed me that my flight was delayed and wouldn't arrive until about half an hour before the plane in Houston was set to take off.  She put me on an earlier (delayed) flight, which I will board about 45 minutes after I was supposed to depart.

Should I be freaking out?  Probably.  Am I?  No, and it isn't the first time I've experienced this today.  This afternoon, I set out for the airport having almost no idea where to catch the bus.  I've been there twice before, but both times I had been in a cab and couldn't remember where we went.  Today I went by bus, confident that my feet and some friendly strangers would get me there safely and on time (which, as you're starting to notice, may be more or less a relative term around here).

I'm calling this phenomenon "Pura Vida" syndrome, and while I've always been a roll-with-the-punches kind of guy this condition has augmented itself in me over the last few months.  It happens organically when everything's half an hour late and phone calls aren't returned for a day or two.  Is it problematic?  Of course, if you're focused on the future.

You see, it isn't that Costa Ricans are by nature tardy or lazy or anything else - corporately, they choose to focus on the present.  Anything that hasn't already happened is eligible to be moved to mañana, and whatever is happening now is more important than those plans along with whatever happened yesterday.

This contrast or conflict has never been starker than over the last few weeks.  I tell my neighbors my girlfriend of one year is coming, and only a few believe me because the idea of maintaining a remote yet romantic relationship seems impossible.  I show them our rapid-fire itinerary and they look at me like I'm insane.  I talk about the five year process which has finally come to fruition in my newly adopted sister, Kristina, and people shake their heads in disbelief.  How could we maintain ourselves for so long based on hope or expectation?

But here comes the tough part: I don't actually espouse "our way" as better.  In fact, I've learned a ton from a worldview like nothing I'd ever seen before, and it's profoundly changed my own.  Sure, a society oriented around enjoying the present may never solve world hunger or invent an iPod or build an atomic bomb, but maybe that's not a bad thing.  Aristotle defines the goal of human existence as something like "flourishing" - doing whatever it is you do well.  I would argue that the Bible defines it as "loving."  I think my own perspective involves both definitions, but also both worldviews.  To be human to the fullest is to plan, but it is also to enjoy.  It is to love, and to do so to the the best of our imperfect ability.  This involves working, playing, cooking, eating, praying, meditating, sleeping, and laughing in the fullest sense of every word, and doing so is certainly an impossibility.  How can we unreservedly enjoy a present on which our future vitality depends?  How can we find fulfillment in a future we know will ultimately be taken away by our own mortality?

Where does this leave us?  I'm not really sure, but I think that very confusion is a more accurate perception of what life is all about than the one I had when I started this post.  Here's what I do know: I'm excited about my future and thankful for my past, but so far as it is possible I am going to try and focus on the present.  Right now, that means making sure I get on this plane so I can meet my new little sister (right after the first class passengers).  See you stateside.