Photos from My Graduation, And Thoughts on the Last Few Weeks
Written on 06/07 at 12:14 PM by Andy Posner
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The last month has been an absolute blur for me. I defended, presented and completed my masters thesis. I then spent the next few weeks working full time on Capital Good Fund and Group stuff, while also dealing with the final stages of purchasing my new condo--which quickly turned into a nightmare of back-and-forth emails, revised documents, etc. For graduation week, two of my best friends, Jared and Danny, as well as my parents, came out to visit. The week started out with Jared and I going out for a bike ride on an absolutely beautiful day in Providence. We had been eagerly anticipating the ride for quite some time because we hadn’t gone for a ride together in a while. As the ride was starting, I noticed a strange notice coming from my bike, but I didn’t think anything of it until about 10 minutes in when suddenly my rear derailleur snapped completely in half (photo below). It turns out that as a result of a crash I had about a month and a half ago the carbon faceplate on the derailleur had sustained a tiny crack that got larger until it suddenly failed. However, Jared and I did end up doing several beautiful rides--with me on my touring bike and him on his race bike--and that about exemplifies how the last month has been: on the whole, absolutely fantastic, but also stressfull and full of surprises. Read on for more about my graduation!
De camino a la Alhambra
Written on 05/16 at 04:57 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments
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poetry
De camino a la Alhambra
De camino a la Alhambra el sueño se cayó
En manos de la realidad,
Y como no anticipaba la invasión
Me quedé destrozado, buscando
Las esquirlas de un amor
Que había explicado el caos del mundo.
De camino a la Alhambra una promesa
Se sometió a la distancia que la transmitía,
Y yo, desesperado, con una fe incorruptible,
Me puse a cantar como un imán
Que de pronto descubre que los creyentes ya no creen;
Mis palabras cayeron sobre una muralla que desconocía.
De camino a la Alhambra una brisa
Se llevó al pasado una historia
Que había conquistado el tiempo,
Que había establecido un reino
De caricias, de miradas penetrantes,
De la perfección hecha alcanzable.
De camino a la Alhambra mi vida
Cambió para siempre, y aunque
El dolor no me haya vencido,
Las heridas no permiten que me olvide
De la luna que iluminó mi corazón
Aquella noche antigua que pasamos en la Alhambra.
A Literary Portrait
Written on 05/02 at 01:37 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments
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Musings
Prose
Several months ago I received a request from Helen Mou, a Brown University Junior, to sit down for an interview for a writing class she was taking. The assignment was to write a literary portrait of a person of interest. I greatly enjoyed the process of being interviewed by Helen, and I think she did a great job of capturing my personality in the portrait. I want to thank Helen for choosing me and for putting so much care and attention into this work. Read on for the full-text of what Helen wrote.
A Milestone, and a Crash
Written on 04/20 at 11:55 AM by Andy Posner 0 comments
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Cycling
A little over a month ago I went through another one of my down periods, during which I felt incapable of doing anything. For a while I was afraid that I would find it impossible to complete my thesis, and I was also very disappointed with the fact that I had once again ceased riding my bike. When I finally started feeling better, I quietly resolved to ride my bike at least an hour a day, not so that I could achieve glory in cycling, but more importantly so that I would avoid falling into periods of inactivity. Granted, I had already tried this before, with rather unimpressive results: I made it about 20 days into the goal before I started overtraining (feeling tired, having trouble sleeping, etc) and had to stop. Yet something felt different this time: I was riding, not with the aim of becoming the fittest cycling in the world, but rather with the goal of feeling fit and happy. With that positive attitude, I started riding, and I haven’t stopped since. Yesterday I completed by 30th consecutive ride, and not only have I lost some weight, but I also feel very fit, very happy and I have managed to do all this without the usual overtraining!
I was thrilled to reach this milestone yesterday, and indeed the first 35 miles of the ride were absolutely beautiful: my friend Mike and I rode a good, hard pace over country roads in Massachusetts, the weather was great, and I felt really strong. Unfortunately, as we were cruising back to where we had parked our cars (finally enjoying a tailwind) we both went down at one of the worst railroad crossing I’ve ever ridden across. Pictures and details after the jump.
A Fantastic Quote
Written on 04/07 at 02:50 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments
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Musings
I wanted to share a fantastic quote by Albert Einstein:
The efforts of most human-beings are consumed in the struggle for
their daily bread, but most of those who are, either through fortune
or some special gift, relieved of this struggle are largely absorbed
in further improving their worldly lot. Beneath the effort directed
toward the accumulation of worldly goods lies all too frequently the
illusion that this is the most substantial and desirable end to be
achieved; but there is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who
recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying
experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but
are bound up with the development of the individual’s own feeling,
thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers
have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the
life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of
their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one
generation can make to its successors.
Welcome. On this blog things get a little more personal. This is where I chronicle my struggles and triumphs, my attempts to better myself and my world, my poetry, my prose, my bike rides, my travels, my day-to-day activities. If you want to know more about Andy Posner--that amalgamation of poet and monk--you’ve come to the right place. So have a look around, and enjoy the opportunity to learn what goes on inside my mind--only beware, my mind is quite a place!
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Green Microfinance: Advancing Social Equality and Environmental Sustainability in the United States
Click here to download a PDF of my complete thesis. Questions and comments are much appreciated!
My masters thesis in Environmental Studies at Brown University looks at how microfinance--the provision of small…
A Solution to the Limited Success of Micro-Credit in the United States?
Micro-credit has undoubtedly been a runaway success in developing countries as a tool of both poverty alleviation and economic development. To date, some 100 million people have been reached by micro-loans, and Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank…
Tonight, the Oneness of Things
It is late and my mind should be drifting through the colorful abyss of deep sleep, yet instead i find that tonight sleep will not come. I am like a hungry flower who dreams of bees so ardently that all…