lessons learned, part 1.

I'm a few weeks from going back to America, the land of my birth. I have one last adventure in me yet, but even now I've begun to do more to reflect on my time here in Thailand, to make sense of it. to think about what it's meant to me, specifically in terms of the lessons learned, and how it should affect me going forward. So here are a few thoughts I've had. I'm going to save my more sentimental "aww, I'm going to miss Thailand" thoughts for a later post, this is going to focus on two lessons.

Lesson #1. Places are just places, and people are all people.

in a few of the interactions I've had with people back home, one of the most striking things that I've noticed is that being here in Thailand, many people back in the comfort of the developed western world seem to be under the basic assumption that I miss all America has to offer.
Meals with cheese and bread, readily available air conditioning, my own room, my own car, having a lot of control about how I spend my day, never getting sick, bathrooms where the toilet and the shower aren't the same thing, being able to read the signs on highways, being able to communicate using big words that express myself. Want to know a secret? I don't miss any of that. at all. I would give it up willingly again without much thought. Oh, dear friends, please don't take it personally. If I say I miss America, it's no lie, but it's you that I miss. If you were all here I might never go back.

Some of my reasoning for this is just as surface-level as the assumptions people have come to. for example, I don't miss american food because thai food is great. Every restaraunt sells only fresh food, and the reason the markets sell the meat and fruit and vegetables on hooks and on tables instead of in refrigerators is because the food was harvested and butchered only a handful of hours ago. Thai food involves more creativity and variety in a single dish than in an entire western buffet. Western food is built around french cuisine, which is a bit like science: mix exactly the right amount of each ingredient in order to replicate past perfections. Thai food is truly a bit more like art. Work with what you have, be daring, create something new and wonderful every single time. At every table there's an arrangement of peppers and oils and sauces so that you, the eater, can go even farther if you want to.

but there's something deeper. I could make a line-by-line comparison of my Thai experience and my American experience and try to measure them up, but I think that would be missing the point. It goes down much deeper than our daily conveniences and into the things our heart believes. One natural thing we as humans seem to be ingrained with is the idea that our experience - our country, our particular sports team, our school, our city, the little unique things about the way we live our life - is somehow intrinsically better than the next guy's. American politicians are quick to pander to this line of logic, often reminding us that "America is the greatest nation in the history of the world." But living cross-culturally, that pride only serves to humble me frequently. America isn't somehow magically better than other countries. (I would even go so far as to say that while I was in Laos I couldn't help but feel great shame for my country, who "secretly" carpet-bombed a beautiful country out of xenophobic paranoia.) And the thing is, it's not that we're better or worse than other people, it's that when it comes down to it, nationalities are kind of imaginary. There's really no such thing as an American or a Thai or any other nationality; on some level we're all just people. Trying to use words to further qualify that definition isn't a good thing.

So what to do with this knowledge?
walk humbly. act justly. love mercy.
be kind.
love your neighbor.

it's always the simple lessons that are the most profound.