A New Promise!

A note to my many and influential readers:

What follows below is my first blog entry written in the Dominican Republic.  Although placing it first on this website is not chronologically correct, I did so in order to maximize your experience on In the Arena, for it was meant to be the first entry read by you.  Clearly, I’ve done my part; in order for you to maximize your experience, follow the instructions below:

Step 1: Read an entry.

Step 2: Leave a comment.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 throughout the website.

This installment includes 4 entries, each of which I consider unique, fun, and thought provoking.  I’m sure you’ll feel the same way.

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Yes, I admit it, this site has made some brash pronouncements over the past two years.  I don't, of course, refer to my prediction that "the Orioles will win the World Series in 2007, 2008, and 2009" (April, 2007) or that "George W. Bush will run for a third term and win" (May 2007).  Nor do I refer to my all too well informed observations that “Jessica Simpson is so too good for Tony Romo” (January, 2008) or that “Bruno will be a great movie” (March, 2008).  I refer to my various—in hindsight empty—promises that I would "post often" and "check in with you soon."  My frequent silences and inconsistency is downright inexcusable, and I apologize to anyone and everyone who has been waiting for me to solve their innermost crises, to help them be better people, to give them cocktail conversation, or to just know what the heck is going on in my life.  I promise to do better.

But what makes a now familiar vow so very different from those of years past?  If anything, keeping you informed from Los Marranitos, a community of around 100 people in rural Dominican Republic, will be my most difficult task yet.  The community is neither on the grid nor (GASP!) has internet, and only a 10 mile, 45 minute journey over bumpy, hole filled, twisting, and (sometimes unintentionally) one-laned roads towards that oasis, that Eden of a city, Jarabacoa, where internet connections abound, allows me to connect with you. 

But this time is different.  Maybe it’s that, unlike Fairfield, CT and Madrid, I truly feel that living in the rural Dominican Republic offers me a unique take on some of the most important issues of our time.   Maybe it’s that, for the first time in my life, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and racism are no longer key terms for tomorrow’s midterm exam but rather problems that I encounter on a daily basis.  Maybe it’s that, when we pull up to McDonald’s and order a large Freezy Freeze®, most of us have no idea where the ingredients that made the drink came from, how they got there, and what effect their cultivation (if it’s real food) has had on the people who helped produce them (although they are delicious!), but I’m seeing those effects now.  Maybe it’s that, without facebook, The Simpsons, The Orioles, People and US Weekly, I actually have time to devote to what I love most but don’t have the discipline to do—to read, to write, to experience new things, to always be learning.  Maybe it’s a combination of all those reasons.  Maybe I just don’t think that you can make it without me.

Whatever it is, after an all-too-long hiatus, In the Arena with Eli Berman has returned, with a vengeance, and I look forward to helping you grow along side me in my wonderful, fantastic, unique journey.

How could you not be excited?