Foreign affairs

Things have changed during my partial week away: most of the snow has melted away and some brown plants have new buds of life on their tips. But spring is happening slowly -- just small changes every day and in different places -- and I am grateful for the slowness so I can have the chance to observe.

During my time away, I had several glimpses into other cultures by way of conversation with my colleagues from around the world who are working in foreign places themselves: a girl from Zimbabwe stationed in Siberia, a girl from Russia stationed in London, a Brazilian guy stationed in Congo... I love how perceptions of normal vary so drastically from one place to another. Take the Sudoko puzzle that my Zimbabwean colleague stationed in Siberia showed me -- just a typical looking Sudoko puzzle ripped from the local newspaper, but the difficulty rating was shown in sketch drawings of Child, Woman, and Man. This particular puzzle was rated Man, which meant it was Difficult!!! She showed it to the girl from Russia stationed in London, and there was a sigh and a shaking of her head as Russian girl said that nobody even blinks at such things.

And then I stumbled upon this mattress commercial from Spain which features an actual homebirth taking place on said mattress, with the slogan "The bed, the most important place in the world". Can you imagine this being shown on US television? Ummm, not me.

"We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms. Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities; with an equanimity so settled that no passing breath nor accidental disturbance shall agitate or ruffle it; with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world's evil, and sweet enough to neutralize what is bitter in it, determined not to be offended when no wrong is meant, nor even when it is, unless the offense be against God. Nothing short of our own errors should offend us." ~ Excerpts from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy