Jeune Street

I didn’t intend to stop blogging, but the past two months have been a period of upheaval and adjustment as Lita and I have begun to build a life in Ottawa, Canada. Moving in, furnishing an apartment, meeting old friends, making new ones, exploring our city, hosting visitors. There hasn’t been a lot of time for blogging, although I hope to change that in the coming weeks. During the quiet moments, this is what is on my mind:

1. Africa

I just started as a senior policy analyst with the Africa Bureau at Canada’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. In spite of the inflated job title, I am very much a newly-minted bureaucrat. My most exciting projects focus on the role of innovation and technology in transforming parts of Africa.

2. Paul Lample, “Revelation and Social Reality”

When Lample’s book came out this summer, I devoured it almost immediately. Now, Lita and I have been hosting a study group to take a closer look at his ideas about how religion reconfigures our internal architecture and transforms the basis of society. We are making fabulous friends through the study group, and it makes Ottawa feel like home.

3. Where the Wild Things Are

My Mom visited this weekend and we went to see this Spike Jonze (and Dave Eggers) adaptation of the classic children’s book, the images of which remain imprinted on my memory. The film was brilliant; while the storyline was vague, the emotional narrative was absorbing. I felt like I was eight again, dealing with the complicated emotions of Max. It’s about the struggle to be an individual and the genesis of the self.

4. Dave Eggers

I was introduced to Dave Eggers by my Dad, who gave me What is the What as a birthday present last year. I have been absorbed by his earlier A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which is the most potent expression of the spirit of my generation I have ever read. Our spiralling hope and aspiration to create something exciting and new, and the magnetic pull of our past. The same themes emerge in his screenplay for Away We Go, which I loved… even if the ending was disappointing.

5. Bloggingheads.tv

The brainchild of Robert Wright, and my constant companion during the 30 minute on-foot commute to and from work. Smart people talking informally about interesting topics for an hour. What could be more stimulating (and nerdy)? I love listening to Wright, Tyler Cowen, and Will Wilkinson.

6. The Atlantic

I just renewed my subscription, and the first issues to arrive remind me why this is one of the best magazines out there. The Atlantic is the best roadmap to the most interesting ideas percolating out of the United States.

7. International Migration

With my boss at the 21st Century School, I just submitted the initial manuscript of our book on the past, present and future of international migration. It was a year-long full-time project, and it feels tremendously satisfying to have completed the book. We hope it will be out in early 2010. Sneak preview of the last sentence of the book: “As our distant ancestors would have told us, the earth is one country and all of humanity its citizens.”