A Dog Hair Covered, Sushi And Edamame Digesting, Fully Immersed In An Alternative Culture, Girl's Musings.
We all follow patterns. As a librarian I understand this fact well, as my daily routines and policies are alphabetized and classified most efficiently. That said, I grew up rather nomadically, and I believe it is due to the polar opposite nature of the two halves of my life thus far; that I have a healthy understanding of the importance of the need for nice bit of perspective challenge.
It is so easy to get sucked into the comfortable routines of life. Yes, most of us have stress and issues, but we still have our patterns of behavior. Even the most impulsive, spontaneous and whimsical of us do. There's nothing like immersing yourself into the world of another to provide you with a bit of point of view reflection.
In our day and age of instantaneous information it is really easy to make up your mind how a group of people are. It's so disheartening to realize you have a bias that was formed not by personal experience, but someone else's opinion. When added up, all those biases can make for a rigid perspective and perhaps even a bit of a closed mind.
While I love comfort, I feel it's good for our well being to hurl ourselves outside our routines from time to time, and boy did I ever go big on this trip. For the last 5 days I've been in San Diego. It's such a lovely city. It's also full of some of the most friendly people I've ever met.
This weekend I rubbed elbows with some incredibly wealthy people. Over the years I have heard and listened to a lot of negativity toward rich people. I personally don't have an issue with wealthy people because I tend to observe beyond the window dressing. That and I have absolutely no desire to impress anyone. That personality trait earned me some life long friends this weekend. Nice people are nice people no matter their socioeconomic status.
Why all this pensive musing? Well, I'm sitting in the Phoenix, Arizona airport on my way back to Idaho, surrounded by a sea of humanity. In the past few days I've helped save a fancy wedding, ate sushi for the first time, been hugged and cooed over by an assortment of drag queens (apparently I have the skin of a model), observed a plague of homelessness, and overall just lived a lifestyle that I wasn't accustomed to. I loved every minute of it.
My post point is that it is so good to stretch your norms and experience people, places, and things outside your comfort zone. It took the heartfelt concern from an overworked biotech CFO's wife for me to wake up and realize I'm pushing myself way too hard. I realized that I still enjoyed creative pursuits as I sketched with my nephew on the beach, and oh my, as I ate my favorite steamed pork dim sum buns did I remember my love for simple culinary pleasures. Mix it up occasionally my fellow Steemians, at the very least you'll glean some goal clarity and have some good stories!!
And as always, all of the images in the post were taken by the author on he slightly panting from exertion iPhone.