You are currently browsing the daily archive for October 25th, 2007.
Today, on my usual walk to Fefela, a great Egyptian fast-food joint that offers fulfilling, albeit not great, food, I had a Cairo moment. Or I guess I should just call it an abroad moment, but nonetheless, I had one of those “Now Moments.”
I recently read somewhere that in any given moment, we actually think about what we are doing, that is experiencing the present, for only about 5 seconds before we begin thinking about the future again. Whether it is standing in front of the pyramids or walking down the street in Cairo or even just sitting in a cafe, enjoying myself, upon reflection, I realize that I actually live in the present for a good five, maybe ten seconds. I am always contemplating that next step, either deciding what photo to take next, or which car to walk around, or even the next move during backgammon, rarely can I say that I just sit back and take it all in.
So today, I just stopped on a side street and paused for sixty seconds and really thought hard about where I am and what I am doing. How many times am I actually going to be living in Cairo? How many times do I get to drop what I am doing and move to the Middle East? How many times do I get to breathe the most polluted air in the world? How many times do I just get a semester to think things out and discover who exactly I am? How many times do I really experience living in the present and having now moments?
