Life is always a paradox and we pay for whatever we get in various ways. For example, I waited until I was 37 to go to India, Nepal. Thailand and Japan. I had wanted to go much younger but realized it was good I waited because I would have gotten lost in past lifetimes there if I had gone any younger. As it was I had my children and wife to ground me into the present and into our businesses and family and life so I didn't just drift off like a younger person sometimes does.
Also, 4 of the 5 of us came back with giardia and looked like we were starving and skinny. We saw black spots before our eyes because no matter how much we ate the Giardia protazoa were eating more than we were in our intestines. However, the other side of this is that I completely changed how I saw everything. The U.S. became a Disneyland to me and as I saw how no place on earth is exactly like it. Somehow we have been able on a material level at least to solve many more problems than most countries have in the world. This doesn't mean the U.S. is perfect by any means either though.
So, when I returned to the U.S. in April 1986 it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I was horrified by what I experienced. I realized just how self centered Americans tend to be as they hide in their cars and homes and apartments and never talk to people. And except for social media this has all gotten much worse since 1986. So, I worry about the future of the U.S. for this reason.
I realized while in India that everyone there that wasn't a go getter died about 400 years ago. So, especially in cities people are extremely aggressive in ways that might be thought of as obnoxious. (this was 1985 and 1986) it could be much different now. As we moved to the countryside in our travels people were less educated to the point where many hadn't even gone to 1st grade and were barefoot all or most of the time.
This had quite an effect on our children and us. It made us more grateful for our lives back in the U.S. and we realized what a struggle most people were having just to eat another day.
My children and I have all been much different after this trip but at the same time more willing to travel anywhere on earth because of all the amazing people we met.
When people could meet death any moment they are very alive because they know death is very near.
LIfe becomes much more precious and so is every moment when death is near. So, we met beautiful people everywhere we went to the point where often it was so overwhelming that you wanted to hide your head in a pillow from cultural overwhelm. And sometimes we did at hotels or in the homes of people we met especially in the Himalayas. However, traveling as a family like we did that people trusted us because we had our children with us. So they knew we were not a problem like some single travelers always are for them.
So, many opened their homes to us and so we were overwhelmed with people wanting to know us, go home with us and you name it. But, mostly it made us all Citizens of the whole world in a way none of us had ever been before.
So, the biggest change in me from this experience was I realized I was a citizen of Earth, a Citizen of the Universe but first a Citizen of the United States. But, when you are all these things at once you are more protective of life everywhere. And this is amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment