To be human is to move.

Life is found in movement, as well as the spaces in between action (non-action), but always there is an impulse to reach further, go a bit farther,and travel beyond those parameters set before you, whether they be  the rules your parents had set for you as a teenager, breaking a federal law by getting pissed from Coors in some college party at the ripe age of 19, which in after thought was pretty lame (hence perhaps the getting druuuunk).

In a much larger sense, when you think of “going beyond” or when people say someone has “broken the 4th wall,”  the mind is filled with images of something extraordinary: pictures of celestial towers in the cosmos; perhaps men planting flags and smiling from behind many layers of Gortex on the tip top of a mountain; the blotted painting that has a room all by itself in the MoMA in where people come to stand and stare in wonder at the daring and the impossibility of it all. Even in a grander sense, the Congressional Medal of Honor, our Nation’s highest citation in the military, is given to those which “go above and beyond the call of duty.” Over the past few years I have read these words for men who have committed acts of valor in war not asked of them by their country. Yet, for reasons known perhaps only to them and few else, they went further than what was set before them.

And in a much, much different context than men of war, or a mind-blowing painting under the soft lights of a gallery, or daring mavericks on top of mountains, millions of people everyday are going further than the lines set before them.  In fact, they are people who literally put to action the meaning of being human: they move. Physically, they travel beyond set parameters by crossing beyond their own state border and into another. Perhaps, like me, they travel for the pure pleasure and adventure in crossing borders into a new and different culture and language. More likely though, if they are like the millions the have immigrated to the U.S. in the last 20-30 years, they cross into the United States in search of better opportunities in wealth, better education for their children, job security; a chance to have more than just the choice between the rock and the hard place. And some are even fleeing war and persecution, leaving everything they have ever know to enter into a strange new world and language and life.

There is a word for this (word of the day, enter here): migration.

Courtesy of the OED:

migration, n.

And today in America, it seems to me that more than just a few political leaders are afraid of this natural human act of migration, of reaching and going beyond to reach a new destination, a new level, “to settle in another.”  If you do not know the basic ends and outs of Arizona’s SB1070 legislation, you can find it here. From this type of immigration law, we can see that other states such as Alabama have copied it in order to, as one Mayor in Alabama says, “protect our citizens, to protect our jobs. and to protect our quality of life.”

Do immigrants- and specifically illegal immigrants- detract from a citizen’s quality of life? Please, refrain from telling me they do not pay taxes- because they have to pay state and property tax, among others. Or that they take away jobs from hard-working Americans– if anything, numerous studies show that the work of migrants creates billions of dollars in revenue, and millions of jobs nation wide. (If you want to see these studies, just ask.) Above all do not tell me that illegal immigrants have no rights in the United States, save being booted back to “the other side.”  Look at the 14th Amendment , where it says:

; nor shall

any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within 
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The “any person part”- not just citizens- was solidified in Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228 (1896). So beyond this, if you believe the presence of illegal immigrants living next to you is degrading your life, tell me why. Should we try to keep out the very people who created America and made it great in the first place- immigrants? Tell me why we should deny anyone the rights that thousands before us have fought and given their lives for, tell me why we should not share the incredible and sublime notion that “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator certain unalienable rights”? (And if you wait a few hundred years, women too.)

And I’m not talking about those that come into this country with a purpose against the government and it’s people- as in with the purpose of running planes into towers. Out of the hundreds of thousands of people looking to gain entry into the United States, most are looking to better their lives and take advantage of the great system we have here ([cue: America, Fuck Yea!], because who wants to live in a country without sportsmanship and white strips?)

But in all seriousness,  border security is a whole ‘nother ball game- and a very important one too.  We should not, however, let fear of the “other”- illegal or legal-dictate and drive our politicians to create laws which go against the very principles this country was founded upon. Within the territory of the United States, all persons are created equal and given full and equal protection of the law, regardless of race, color, sex, or creed.  All stand equal to try and reach farther than their limits to find their pursuit of happiness, and to go above and beyond in this life “to settle into another,” that which had previously only existed in a mere dream.

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The house smells of burning peppers and cooking meat; if my nose doesn’t deceive me, I believe delicious chile rellenos are on the horizon. Night has fallen here in Mexico, and despite the massive amount of work I have to prepare for my presentation in class on Tuesday, my body is calling for a run. My head is too full of question of what exactly it means to be an “American,” if nationalism is a good thing or not, how I can love my country and being American while at the same time believe borders are silly constructions (but then again, maybe not…) October is chugging along, and I have applications to fill out for my next semester abroad.

I have life, too, to consider beyond Xalapa, which has been wonderful, but it is high time I wake up to my position in this world as an American citizen, and the necessity of being proactive in my own country. I am not here to sit dumb and silent as dead weight in a system which requires participation to continue. People complain about politicians and how you cannot trust them, well perhaps you can’t, but talk is just air. Get up and go do something about it.

And on considering life beyond Xalapa, I realized what has been missing in mine over the last few weeks: movement. Yoga has been sporadic due to the fact Lou went back to Germany for two weeks, and the rents came to visit for one of those weeks. I hate running in daylight because all you get are nice, obtrusive gawkers from guys who act like they have never seen a gringa run before. (Excuses, excuses.)

But at the base, I dearly dearly miss CrossFit.  As in, I am actually looking forward to the pain and they holy-shit-my-body-is-freakin-me-out! moments. I miss the moments where you know you can stop, and the discomfort will stop with it, but instead you keep going, you reach further even though you don’t know if you’ll make it or not. And you find that, no, your heart did not burst. Sure, you might vomit, but dear god the body is in pure bliss.

I better stop writing about CrossFit before I get too homesick for it. (But I would kill for a good-sized kettle bell…) It’s time I become my own motivation for pushing myself beyond my limits, something that is extremely hard to do for me when the only person I am competing against is myself. If I’m the only one pushing out push-ups, or squats, or doing sprints… well, I can’t even remember the last time I did sprints by myself, against myself.  Blerg.

En el final, te dejé con una canción:

El Enero en La Playa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAEVyO94wtw