One of the things I love most about traveling is witnessing how people live around the world. Born with an over-active imagination, I tend to romanticize cultures before I experience them, pining away after fairy-tale-like foreign lands. As a child, with my limited world-view I used to envision Asian countries as places full of dragon legends, rife with tales of emperors, martial artists showing off their mad flying skills, graceful dainty women wearing vibrant flowers in their hair.
The Far East took on a storybook feeling in my mind.
While these perceptions may seem harmless enough, now that I’m actually living in Asia I’ve had to confront some deeper stereotypes that aren’t so nice and romantic, things I didn’t even know I’d carried inside myself.
Coming from the US, I find it safe to say a lot of us grow up in a sort of sheltered bubble, secretly believing the world revolves around North America. Many people unfortunately never step outside those boundaries, but for those that do, a new journey begins. And there’s no looking back.
I still have a long way to go. But I’ve learned a lot from those I’ve met so far. From the mahouts in the jungles of Thailand, with their life-long dedication to their elephants, to the children in the Philippines, living in huts by the sea, playing games barefoot on dusty roads (sheltered from the evils of video game systems), from my students, Taiwan friends, and even the crazed bin-lang chewing truck drivers (who are not really so different from enraged commuters in the suburbs of Chicago)–the cultural differences may isolate us at times, but spirit entwines us closely together.
I witnessed this firsthand a few days ago.
I attended a Christian church here in Puli despite my sorely lacking Chinese skills. When the singing and worship started, the barrier dissolved. The message rang loud and clear as I listened to the uplifted voices of the congregation, their hands outstretched toward Heaven. United, the meaning transcended words; we felt it within our hearts. And words of the heart are the same in any language.
Out of all the barriers human beings impose on/put up against one another, this seems to be the easiest to break down. I look forward to watching more of them crumble.