Being present is something we all seem to struggle with, we may be around, we may be talking, walking, eating, laughing, but are we present?
Are we really there? absorbing the factors, the truths, the lies… do we even care?
sometimes, being around so many people can make you feel the most alone.
We begin life with few obligations. We promise to honour thy mother and father, we swear to return our library books. But as we get older, we take vows, make promises, get burdened by commitments. To do no harm, to tell the truth and nothing but to love and cherish the other, till death do us part. So really, we just keep running the tap till we owe everything to everybody and then suddenly..
The thing about being an anthropologist is everybody wants a piece of you. We take one small oath and then suddenly we are drowning in obligations. To our informants, our fellow academics, our universities and to well anthropology itself. So we do what any sane person would do. We run like hell from our promises, hoping they’ll be forgotten. But sooner or later, they always catch up and sometimes you find the obligation you dread the most not being something worth running from at all.
