For as long as I can remember I have been on a mission to burn down my personal culture, and from the ashes built a new culture with global values.
The famous idea that we are a product of our environments has always intrigued and sparked thoughts in my mind, but has also frightened me.
If I am a product of my environment then am I bound and limited by my environment as well?
When I was younger I was tormented by thoughts of restriction. How could I have real empathy and understanding if I do not KNOW how and why others think differently than me. The idea that I could not truly understand a culture, a people or even an individual person was demoralizing and extremely disheartening. So I began reading books on cultural anthropology, evolutionary biology, literature from the Enlightenment period, Ancient mythology from Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia, world religions, and western philosophers like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, but I soon realized that the more I read, the less I truly knew about the world and its inhabitants. I realized that I was simply getting a wide, eclectic variety of western thoughts, where only 16% of the human population lives. I decided to learn more about the other 84%, specifically Japan, Korea, China, India, The Middle Eastern nations, and African nations.
The effects of learning about the other 84%.
I have just begun the reconstruction of my mind adhering to a global culture and, the effects have been life altering.
Learning about Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, Taoism in China, learning about Hindu schools of philosophy like Naya, Vaisesika, Jainism, Buddhism, and Samkhya, and also about Zoroastrianism in The Middle East, Shinto in Japan and Shamanism in Korea have changed my views of happiness, materialism, life, death, love, fear, poverty and reality.
Unfortunately, reading just isn’t enough anymore. Imagination simply is not enough anymore. Dreaming is not enough anymore. I need reality.
There are two types of explorers in this world: Astronomers and Astronauts.
Astronomers love knowledge, discovery, adventure, doubt, problem solving and mystery…….but from the safety of their laboratories or offices.
Astronauts loves knowledge, discovery, adventure, doubt, problem solving and mystery…….but they like to use their senses to understand the world. They want to touch, feel, smell, hear and see what they are learning about. It is the difference between imagining and seeing.
I feel I must wear others’ shoes to get a more complete picture and understanding. I must eat their food, adapt to their cultures, “temporarily” adopt their religions, wear their clothes, breath their air, have their fears, have their dreams and hopes. I must localize where ever I go to see the world the way it is, instead of imagining it for what it could be.
This crusade of thought is all in the pursuit of learning and becoming a better man. A mission to become a stronger, more empathetic, more open-minded, worldly, wiser, smarter, better human and global citizen on this Blue Dot. Travel gives you an opportunity to become a higher quality human on this planet. The goal of creating my personal, individual global culture is full-steam-ahead and I am not looking back.
Traveling and eating my way to a new global culture is a post from: EARTH EXCURSION