Life is not what you expect: it is made up of the most unexpected twists and turns.
Ilaiyaraaja
Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.
Carl Sandburg
People who know me well are few and far between. But those who are reasonably close to me often know my passion for many things and ideas and practices Canadian and British….and other cultures outside the U.S. I’m sure I’ve written about my admiration for appealing matters unique to Iceland and Germany and Finland and Mexico and Croatia on and on and on. Scandinavia, as a region, belongs on that list. Had I spent more time in more places, I am confident I would add many other countries and regions to my “favorites” list. But physically visiting a place is not required for me to including it on my list; I’ve never been to Iceland, but I’ve read enough about it to feel comfortable adding it to my list. And my limited time in Croatia, especially Dubrovnik, merits that country’s inclusion. My experience in and around all of these places is limited, though. I base my appreciation on opinions formed by quite restricted exposure to minimal engagement; I realize my assumptions and attitudes are biased by what may be (and probably are) prejudiced snapshots. In most cases, I can defend my appreciation for places—even with their shortcomings—and acknowledge my biases and explain my limits of acceptance. That is true of my appreciation for the U.S. (declining, though it is). This country has far more unpleasant eccentricities than I’d like, but I still find it sufficiently appealing to live here…much of the time. I wish raving U.S. nationalists would adopt my perspective on this country and others. My assumption is that every place on the planet has something that could be attracting or appealing if we’d only allow ourselves to dismiss our animosity toward it. It’s not just “us,” of course. Many other cultures that are taught to despise our country and our culture could stand more than a little a bit of deprogramming. Damn; this topic has drifted east, west, south, and down. Such is the way I think.
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The sounds of birds in the trees might change from calls and songs to growls and barks. And dogs, expressing their animosity toward strangers at the gate, could call their discomfort, singing songs of warning. And we would be surprised to hear cows signaling their hunger with honking and ducks raising a ruckus with incessant mooing, while geese flying overhead quack their way on their journey south or north.
How odd would those unexpected changes be? Would we be as deeply surprised if we deplaned at the Tokyo airport and heard almost everyone speaking Spanish? Or if we arrived on a cruise ship at the port in Anchorage to find everyone speaking Greek? What would our reaction be on our arrival through the Chunnel to Calais, to be met by people who exclusively spoke Mandarin Chinese? Would that reaction be something like the one we would have upon hearing only Russian spoken at the to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport? Naturally, we might expect a mix of multiple language at each place; but to be met with universal monolingualism of the “wrong” language?
Considering the surprising experiences we would encounter if our world’s were suddenly changed in fundamental (but not necessarily earth-shattering) ways, is an interesting exercise in how we might deal with bias. What if the tastes (and experiences) of consuming soy sauce and wasabi were reversed? How about being served thinly-sliced raw chicken when you ordered carpaccio? Would an order of steamed bay lemon-meringue pied delivered to your plate surprise you when you asked for spinach?
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I’ve heard this is true, but I’ve not experienced it first-hand. 🙂
There is nothing that compares to an unexpected round of applause.
Lynn Abbey
