Highway to the Danger Zone

There is something seriously wrong with me. At least more than what you've already figured out, if you've been reading this blog over the past 3 years.

It occurred to me yesterday, standing at the pick-up window at the Ugandan Consular office in downtown Nairobi. I was there to retrieve my passport containing the new single entry visa for a Sunday flight to Kampala, Uganda--my old refugee haven from hard-time in Gulu.

Now, if this had been 5 years ago, and a major terrorist bombing had occurred in Kampala the week before I was scheduled to be there for a meeting, my formal RSVP would have read as follows,

"There ain't enough money, love or wildly over-priced footwear in the universe to persuade me to attend said meeting. See ya--wouldn't wanna BE ya!"

Instead, I watched the news reports about the 2 bomb blasts last Sunday with an eerie detachment. Obviously I'm sad for the victims and their families, but this type of event is almost a part of everyday life over here. I just told a friend that if you agree to work in East Africa, you kind of have to adopt three major strategies--stay out of political rallies, crowded bars and matatus--and maybe you'll be okay. Maybe.

Then she reminded me that she lives in New York City, which after 9/11 carries its own measure of palpable, ever-present threat. And when you start hearing about mass murders in sleepy Northern England villages, or at schools in Finland, for God's sake, you begin to accept that you can get iced almost anywhere these days. Evil does not respect geographic boundaries.

Still, part of me wonders if I haven't numbed myself into a state of reckless bravado these days. Whatever. I'm definitely playing these Kenny Loggins lyrics in a loop in my head these days...

Revvin' up your engine

Listen to her howlin' roar

Metal under tension

Beggin' you to touch and go

Highway to the Danger Zone

Ride into the Danger Zone

Headin' into twilight

Spreadin' out her wings tonight

She got you jumpin' off the track

And shovin' into overdrive

Highway to the Danger Zone

I'll take you

Right into the Danger Zone

You'll never say hello to you

Until you get it on the red line overload

You'll never know what you can do

Until you get it up as high as you can go

Out along the edges

Always where I burn to be

The further on the edge

The hotter the intensity

Highway to the Danger Zone

Gonna take you

Right into the Danger Zone

Highway to the Danger Zone