Member-only story
The Authentic Eclectic
When Your House Boy Has Shares In The Ajax Company…
You have to remind yourself that you are the alien in the situation
I read recently about a passport being an essential item in human existence, to support a wonky chair leg or the likes. But all joking apart, being able to use them as freely as we once did, would be heaven indeed.
There’s something bracing about those first few tentative steps onto foreign shores. What will you have to bear in mind? What steps could see you falling foul of another person’s culture?
You don’t decide to visit a foreign country, hoping to replicate what you once had. What would be the point?
Nor should you expect to fit in with the history and perspectives of the people. There’s an inextricable link between history and experiences that make the people who they are, and you are little more than a bit player in their opera.
The people you meet, their personalities, their response to you, all serve as a glimpse into their world, and it’s not for you to change things. Rather you accept things as they are, or failing that, return home.
If you can accept this as a given, you too will be a much better person for it.
