I am William Purcell

So I am me again! Well my bank thinks I am me again, which is all that counts when you are trying to get your debit card to work overseas. I called my bank again today and this time they were able to verify that I am in fact William Purcell.

I fell asleep rather early yesterday. What I thought was only going to be a quick nap ended up with me waking up at 3 AM local time. I did not want to undo all my hard work of adjusting to the time difference by being up that early in the morning so I reached into my bag and cheated myself to sleep with a Benedryl. I passed out and woke up around 7 AM. I really needed the sleep it turns out.

Over the past few days there has been some de-construction going on in Shashi's neighborhood. 3 men with sledgehammers have completely reduced a 3 story building to rubble. 3 men. 3 sledgehammers. 3 story building. 3 days. Personally, I liked the idea of it. There is something satisfactory in watching something slowly crumble. I suppose it is because I subscribe to the boom-boom theory.

This theory (loosely) states that one of the reasons that we enjoy watching things destroyed or taken apart is because as humans there is part of us that resents living in an ordered and rule filled society. Man made structures are physical representations of the constraints that society places on us. When we see them destroyed it feels exhilarating and liberating because we associate these buildings and possessions as enslaving us in some way. It gives us hope to know that society can be deconstructed.

I finished a book today. Neil Gaimen's American Gods. This book is about all the gods we have imported, created, and forgotten over the years in America. According to the mythology of the book gods are created, and maintained by our belief in them. The Internet, Odin, and Johnny Appleseed are just some of the gods that this book deals with.

The idea that gods are man-made and man-sustained is a theme that is common in many writers I find myself drawn to. Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaimen, and Tom Robbins are just a few of my favorite authors that seem to share this approach to the divine. While I do not necessarily agree with them, I cannot help but see that people actually do create, worship, and abandon their own gods all the time. These authors simply take the human condition a step beyond the believable and manifest the things that we worship as actual gods.

I suppose I like to read these kinds of books because it reminds me to examine the gods I have created in my own life. Ironically enough one of those gods is books themselves. I have an addiction to reading. I will go on month long book binges where I will read everything I can get my hands on. Then I will get bored and not pick up a book for a month or two.

My trips to India have always been book binge times. Here I have a lot of free time, and none of the same distractions I have at home. I suppose it is a way in which I insulate myself from my surroundings, choosing to enter a world in my mind instead of dealing with the new world surrounding me.

I dunno.