In response to Locogringos "liars and thieves" post.
Caution: After you read this self examination may be required before responding.
Enjoy it while you can. Its all heading to be a mass world blur. Soon the culture blur and gender blur will take most of the intrigue out of life - just as the internet has.
Yes, everything will be easier but much less fascinating. Example - I use to travel and meet only eccentrics and adventures - those who traveled because they had to - as that was who they were. How they rolled. It was a challenge but they did it for no other reason than to fulfill their self definition. No I meet people that turn expatriation into a board game.
It's no longer much of a challenge or a need for most people. It's a choice. All the information is available online including photos!!! Wooopeee! - so the surprise, the level of discomfort and ones ability to create a comfort zone from an alien environment is so much less challenging and thusly less rewarding.
Expatriation is nothing like it used to be - and middle America, with its financial reach, who before would not risk it, that is, risk going somewhere without prior knowledge of what they may find, who wouldn't forgo the fear of the unknown, as the eccentrics and adventures did, now travel widely. Hahahaha - and I meet them all the time.
Wow I liked it much better when the eccentric and adventurer birds of a feather flocked together. They always had an opinion, were interesting and had something novel to say. Insightful, soulful. French, rather than English. Never playing the political correctness card. Now the majority of "travelers" have opinions only about visas and money transfers, and health insurance. So boring. The ugly mundane.
It's as if the eccentric and adventurers were like Timothy Leary, Howard Hughes or Owsley Stanley - now a day you get Barney Fife, Suzy Orman, or Mr. Drysdale.
As for the locals, I'll take Ellie Mae and Jed Clampet - less educated and genuine before the nuveo riche Latinos trying to be gringos. Joke. If they only new how silly they look. If they only knew keeping their simple traditional ways and agricultural ties to the land were far more valuable than the culture blur Westerns spread through the media - and through indoctrinated mid America trying to make where ever they go more like back home - thinking they know better than the "unsophisticated" locals. Those heathens - those animals!
The indoctrinated Westerners know money is better than family, they know office jobs are better than being connected to the earth agriculturally, and they know its more important to spread puritanical ways than laugh, dance and drink. That is why they leave home looking to fill their souls with something essential, yet preach only what hey have been fed between the lines - materialism. Sad contradiction of mid America indoctrination.
Rather than trying to create comfort, why don’t travelers try and change their heads instead, and see life is to be lived with risk and opinion, rather than with an illusion of safety and political correctness.
Ho humm .. back to the beautiful mundane: my coffee plantation, the flowers, old growth cypress hedges, Spanish cedar tress, the river, the workers, the butterflies, dragonflies, dogs, cats and kids. Ahh, and my Lolita. Chop wood carry water. Chop wood carry water. As faceless as a grain of sand at the beach. Nobody knows this is somewhere. How much longer can I keep it that way.
Caution: After you read this self examination may be required before responding.
Enjoy it while you can. Its all heading to be a mass world blur. Soon the culture blur and gender blur will take most of the intrigue out of life - just as the internet has.
Yes, everything will be easier but much less fascinating. Example - I use to travel and meet only eccentrics and adventures - those who traveled because they had to - as that was who they were. How they rolled. It was a challenge but they did it for no other reason than to fulfill their self definition. No I meet people that turn expatriation into a board game.
It's no longer much of a challenge or a need for most people. It's a choice. All the information is available online including photos!!! Wooopeee! - so the surprise, the level of discomfort and ones ability to create a comfort zone from an alien environment is so much less challenging and thusly less rewarding.
Expatriation is nothing like it used to be - and middle America, with its financial reach, who before would not risk it, that is, risk going somewhere without prior knowledge of what they may find, who wouldn't forgo the fear of the unknown, as the eccentrics and adventures did, now travel widely. Hahahaha - and I meet them all the time.
Wow I liked it much better when the eccentric and adventurer birds of a feather flocked together. They always had an opinion, were interesting and had something novel to say. Insightful, soulful. French, rather than English. Never playing the political correctness card. Now the majority of "travelers" have opinions only about visas and money transfers, and health insurance. So boring. The ugly mundane.
It's as if the eccentric and adventurers were like Timothy Leary, Howard Hughes or Owsley Stanley - now a day you get Barney Fife, Suzy Orman, or Mr. Drysdale.
As for the locals, I'll take Ellie Mae and Jed Clampet - less educated and genuine before the nuveo riche Latinos trying to be gringos. Joke. If they only new how silly they look. If they only knew keeping their simple traditional ways and agricultural ties to the land were far more valuable than the culture blur Westerns spread through the media - and through indoctrinated mid America trying to make where ever they go more like back home - thinking they know better than the "unsophisticated" locals. Those heathens - those animals!
The indoctrinated Westerners know money is better than family, they know office jobs are better than being connected to the earth agriculturally, and they know its more important to spread puritanical ways than laugh, dance and drink. That is why they leave home looking to fill their souls with something essential, yet preach only what hey have been fed between the lines - materialism. Sad contradiction of mid America indoctrination.
Rather than trying to create comfort, why don’t travelers try and change their heads instead, and see life is to be lived with risk and opinion, rather than with an illusion of safety and political correctness.
Ho humm .. back to the beautiful mundane: my coffee plantation, the flowers, old growth cypress hedges, Spanish cedar tress, the river, the workers, the butterflies, dragonflies, dogs, cats and kids. Ahh, and my Lolita. Chop wood carry water. Chop wood carry water. As faceless as a grain of sand at the beach. Nobody knows this is somewhere. How much longer can I keep it that way.
