Unlike many people I have had a good and well rounded education. I could say that my education began in Grade School and that my father started debating me about all my positions on anything starting around age 8. This was very helpful in my growing up and having good ideas and that if I couldn't defend my ideas in any situation maybe my ideas were wrong and I might need to change some of them. In this basic way I learned to evolve to how things really are rather than to have ideas that have no basis in actual survivable reality. Learning to survive in the world you are put in as a child helps you to learn to survive in the real world always.
For example, if you tell people exactly what you think in a foreign country they might kill you or at the very least beat you up or stick a knife in you. So, learning what is happening around you and understanding saying certain things could be fatal or injurious to your health is helpful not only here in the U.S. in whatever state you are in but also overseas as well.
Being provincial in foreign countries often can get people killed. So, learning what to say and what not to say while traveling outside of your state is important.
In some ways the United States is 50 different countries or more. So, understanding this is important to everyone's survival.
One of the times I was the most scared recently was going to Texas to visit my Daughter who works there now. I had never been to Texas before because I didn't know anyone who lived there before to visit there at this point at least.
So, growing up and mostly living in California my whole life except for the first four years after birth in Seattle Washington I have gotten used to a certain way of doing things.
Then we went to Texas and I often felt scared there simply because I didn't know what I was supposed to do there. Being myself as a Californian might be injurious to my health and people tended to drive like they were going to run into your car a lot there. and the hardest thing to get used to for me as a Californian is you cannot stare or look at people in Texas or they feel threatened.
In California staring is normal because of Actors and Hollywood who all want to be stared at so you go to their movies and stuff. But, that's not how it is in Texas at all. So, averting my eyes when people got that Texas Terrified look in their eyes was the most uncomfortable thing I experienced in Texas.
Then there is India and Nepal that I went to in 1985 and 1986 with my family for 4 months time and traveled with them both in India and Nepal. At that time hundreds of people would gather around us and stare at us because that is a part of the culture there. This was a little much for me even as a Californian.
However, I think the reason this was done there then is that most people then had not been to school so they thought they might learn something important from us or that we were rich Americans or something like that.
However, we were very middle Class and only because the exchange rates of money were good could we actually afford to travel there like we did at all. But, most people who live there didn't understand this at least then.
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