Temperamental natures of different cultures…

While meeting so many people on the road, train, or the airplane, I was exposed to a variety of different paradigms. While some differences are clearly reconcilable, some differences do not appear to be such. It makes me wonder how growing up in different environments, countries, and geographies affects people’s paradigms. I have grown up mostly in the suburban South of wonderful Tennessee and Alabama, and I cannot help but think that my paradigm has been shifted, molded, and gifted for such. There are obviously going to be differences with Peruvians, Bolivians, and Argentineans with what is normal for us in our lifestyles, thoughts, and ways of viewing different subjects. What we consider normal is clearly not going to be normal for someone else, and they may feel the same about our culture in a continuously reciprocal realization.

As I spoke more in detail with different individuals, these differences became all the more apparent to me. I would notice this, and the other person would notice that about Americans. Such observations provided some of the most interesting conversations but also illustrated the differences in paradigms. While these differences will not affect the trueness of relationship I have with some specific people, it might affect how we get along or what the end result of even future decisions are made in visiting specific places. A person is naturally proud of the place they are born, but that does not still change the existence of those places and the views that are shaped by such places.

I have always been amazed when people of two different cultures become romantically interested in each other, especially if something serious develops. You must realize that more than likely one person is going to leave their family behind to move to another country. Sacrifices are going to be made, sometimes even more so than you might like. People do strange things for love, but when involving two people from across the planet in different nations, those strange things might even be more so than originally anticipated or expected. The question is: how bad do you want to be with that person?

The separation of distance, opposing viewpoints, or differences in paradigms should not separate new friends. In fact, sometimes it can do the opposite, bringing you closer to that person. These differences are what make us who we are, doing what we do. It is in God’s eyes that we are truly unique in his Creation in the beauty of such. Those differences are what fascinate me, and that is why I enjoy hopping all over the world to see what entirely is out there for me to experience, to enjoy, to celebrate, and to love in the beautiful people of each new occurrence.