In the Search for a New Way of Life

In the search for a new way of life, what better way than study the ways of other cultures, people with completely different backgrounds, ideas and values. But in order to understand these foreign perspectives it is necessary that we defer our (usually immediate) judgement and observe with an empty and open mind (like a child seeing the world for the “first” time).

However, contact and conversations with these “foreign” people tends to be much more difficult to initiate than a conversation with a fellow European who shares vastly the same values and background, but if one is to truly learn about other cultures one ought to resist this temptation. The beauty about travelling is that one will receive exactly the kind of experience one is open to receive. The person looking for a “trivial” experience will close himself to everything else. Likewise a person in search for an in depth cultural interchange will close herself to trivial encounters.

In this plethora of stimuli how is one to decide which aspects of a certain culture one would like to embrace and adopt into one’s life? In theory this sounds like a simple pick and chose among global cultures but it is the hardest thing in the world to let go of one of your cherished (deeply engrained) traits in exchange for another. But it is well worth the effort.