The pursuit of Knowledge

In an attempt to locate the location...hmmm...flashbacks of Austin Powers...

Allow me to begin again.

In an attempt to locate an exact position of my travel destination this week, I referenced my "It's a Big Big World" Atlas measuring 16" wide, 23" tall, and other dimensions as well. The cleverly drawn snakes and cacti made for an amusing and colorful decor, but did not serve my interest in a detailed map of Mexico. However, glancing at the page containing the country of my roots, I stumbled upon...okay, maybe I didn't stumble at all, but instead simply noticed a collection of sticky notes posted around the Asian continent. Each post-it designed with the amusing label "a note from the voices in my head" introduce scrawlings of my notes on Middle Eastern politics. Smaller, fluorescent colored stickies mark particular countries with their respective notes. Iran in all its intolerance flaunts the label "doesn't recognize Taliban". Other notes explain how different War Lords of guerrilla groups wanted power over Afghanistan after the war with the USSR. The Taliban was one of these groups teaching Islamic beliefs to refugees in Pakistan.

The whole idea reaches a cultured, scholarly level I never thought I could ever attain. Curiously enough, I don't remember engaging in such political stimulation whatsoever. My memory serves as no evidence that I actually accomplished such an ambitious pursuit of knowledge. Fortunately, the chicken-scratch handwriting positively identifies as my own.

So if you happen to be flipping through my "It's a Big Big World" Atlas, feel free to satisfy your appetite for Middle Eastern history on the Asian page. And to clarify any confusion, the post-it reading "All Stans in the 80's were part of USSR" does not refer to a generation of males falling into socialism based on the misfortune of being poorly named, but to the countries Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan...umm...I'm not sure about Pakistan. I'll leave that for those inspired to join the pursuit of knowledge.

Ironically, in the making of this entry, I should have been studying. Sometimes the pursuit to tell of the pursuit of knowledge can delay the actual pursuit...uh...did that make any sense?