2 Years of Posts, Part 2: Sometimes The World Should Be Black And White

This is the 'Hard Questions' Seat

Reflecting on two years of writing in Azerbaijan continues with a post from the early summer of 2011.  It related the story of a fight my sitemate Glendene got into with a person who was assaulting one of the gypsy children that beg in Khachmaz.

Hard Questions, posted June 8th 2011

This event slapped me in the face with the big difference between saying and doing and the really messy grey in between. I'm a pacifist but can I recognize, and do I have the courage to rise above, the line that separates this from compliance. I consider myself a cultural relativist but I certainly wouldn't want to become a nihilist through laziness of thought and action.

I vividly remember this day and how extreme every one was feeling.  I still laugh at how cluelessly I ambled into the restaurant within 5 minutes of this happening and was nearly pounced on in the effort to relate what had just happened.

More than an observation about Azerbaijan, this was an observation about myself: Could I depend upon myself to do the right thing if it didn't immediately affect me?  I've never really encountered a situation like that before; I'd like to think that when the time comes I will.