Pura Vida by Juniper

The term 'Pura Vida' is, perhaps, the most popular Costa Rican phrase. You see it on a huge proportion of tourist paraphernalia, hear it more often than not in any extended interaction with locals, and see it plastered on signs most anywhere you go. It is a native Costa Rican term for 'pure life', but it can mean much more than that. It symbolizes the local philosophy of life, that being a pure life is one of enjoyment, fun, and an underlying easygoing nature. It means to take life as it comes and to live life fully. Often locals use the term to communicate that life is going good regardless of troubles. It can also mean lots of different - and much simpler things - in conversation such as hello, how are you, or even the equivalent of the Western answer to every inquiry into someone's current state: good!

The constant usage of this simple phrase begs comparison between my home culture and the one where I currently reside. It emphasizes how expectations of what one's life should entail can be so very different simply based upon where you are born. And it's got me thinking a bit.

I do not claim to be an expert on culture or history, so correct me if my thoughts and conclusions on such topics are off the mark. From what I understand, a defining component of Western culture has been the shaping and molding of basically everything it can get its hands on. It sees a tree and thinks 'If I chop that down, what can I use it for?' It sees a new culture and thinks 'What do they have that we want; the rest we'll fix.' It sees a human being and thinks 'What more can they become, and how do we get them there?' It sees the arc of history and thinks 'How much more can we bend it to our ends?' Words that seem to describe Western thought and culture to me are progressive, aggressive, impatient, rational, assertive, objective, and critical. (There are many more, of course, but I'll leave the list like that for the sake of this post).

I do not know nearly so much about Latin American culture or history - I'm slowly learning. There are, however, some general patterns that stand out to me from a purely Costa Rican cultural perspective. The cultural compass isn't pointed towards progress or domination or mastering nature - although that's not to say those things aren't valued or practiced here - but rather towards the appreciation of what we already have and know. It is much more focused on the now than the future. It puts a lot more effort into the subjective layers of life. It does a lot less of the throwing away the good things it knows it has in an attempt to find better than we do in the Western world. I don't know what a Latin American mind thinks when it sees a tree or a new culture or a human being or the arc of history. It's bound to be different, and so it seems I have some learning to do.

The reason I make these comparisons is that, in some ways, I find the conflicting natures of these different cultures a macrocosm of what I and many people I know wrestle with inside. My thoughts on this topic feel a jumble in my head at the moment, so I'm going to try and communicate a few things as succinctly as I can. Below are some questions I find profound that I think stem from this topic and touch on the struggles of many trying to figure out what life should look like to them.

Can living in the moment make one impotent at impacting the future? Can focusing too much on the future render one oblivious to the present?

How much effort should I put into changing the world if the more I push the more unhappy I am? How much contentment is sufficient to say 'I am happy, now what can I do to serve'?

If every tree I chop can be put to good use, how many will be sufficient? The more we hold sacred the less we can change, so what are we willing to sacrifice in the name of progress?

There are many things in me that are broken. Which do I leave behind, which do I live with, and which do I repair?

How much is enough?

Perhaps these struggles arise from growing up in Canada, where different cultural mindsets are genuinely allowed to be explored and people with different - or even conflicting - basic beliefs about what life should be somehow manage to live together peacefully on the whole. Maybe everyone struggles with these things, regardless of how ingrained in one cultural perspective they may appear on the outside.

I have a sneaking suspicion I've fallen into an old habit of posting something online in a state where my thoughts haven't quite reached maturation and thus what I've said is more confusing to follow than it is helpful. If so, then this blog post can serve as a sort of representation of what my brain is like in those long stretches of time where I'm lost in my thoughts and not saying much. Hopefully there's a bit more substance than that though!

Life update time!

Speaking of Pura Vida, I think it is an apt term for my life right now. I've been struggling with some major allergy issues in our place and washing all the curtains and walls hasn't seemed to solve the problem just yet. I've also been wrestling with discipline and distractions, and I'm not yet at the point where I'm super pleased with my progress. And yet I can easily say Pura Vida. I've had a few of the best writing days of my life this month and surpassed 75,000 words in the novel. I got to spend a few days at my first all-inclusive beach resort last week. I got to help butcher an entire Buffalo (took a big group of us about 8 hours) which was interesting! My days are almost entirely stress free. I get time off whenever I want. I have access to tons of fresh, delicious food basically whenever I feel like putting in the effort to get it/make it. I'm getting along great with my inlaws. I have a top notch wife who is super patient and supportive. I have a killer view and really nice weather. And I'm probably forgetting a bunch of other good things.

Oh yeah, and I'm not currently pulling out my hair trying to figure out how to make room-full's of teenagers listen to me and care about what I'm teaching. I do miss teaching, but man it's nice to not be going through the stress of the start of a new school year right now. I feel totally spoiled.