"when in Rome, do..."
These quotes are cited about being amongst others:
“I do not want my house to be walled on all sides or my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But, I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” --Mohandas K. Gandhi
“All real living is meeting.” --Martin Buber
“Je’ est un autre.”: “The ‘I’ is an other.” --Rimbaud
“Abandon all hope you who enter.” --Dante Alighieri, Inferno, III, 9
“Some travelers want to go to foreign places but are dismayed when the places turn out actually to be foreign.” --Margaret Atwood
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” --T.S. Eliot
“A society without strangers would be impoverished; to live only among ourselves, constantly inbreeding, never facing an outsider to make us question again and again our certainties and rules, would inevitably lead to atrophy. The experience of encountering a stranger--like the experience of suffering--is important and creative; provided we know when to step back.” --Elie Wiesel
“…but you have no need to go anywhere--journey within yourself.” --Rumi, 13th century Sufi poet
“No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it gives us equal distance into the world within.” --Lillian Smith
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.” --Mark Twain
One of the most valuable experiences in my life was as an American Field Service summer exchange student to Denmark with 40 some other students from all over the United States. Because we lived in homes across the country and were together in the beginning for orientation, in the middle, and at the end, my insight was opened to things foreign to me about people of my own country as well as things of those from another country.
It sealed a change in focus on to people, as I discovered the importance of walking in the shoes of another. It created a paradigm shift in thinking and a comprehension that my perceptions of anything were based on my narrow world; others might have different views based on entirely different world realities. My mind was not only opened to a larger understanding of styles of government like socialism and democracy, but even to things I thought until then more singular to the United States like race and prejudice as I observed xenophobia towards Turkish people living there. I've learned not to be a visitor in the connotation of the ugly american, but a guest more akin to the heroic character of the original source of the phrase - "... who lives with the local people, comes to understand their needs, and gives genuinely-useful assistance...", here and abroad.
The key is to gain as much understanding as possible about any given situation so as to be able to narrow down to the key factors to be considered in order to make the best possible decisions in regards to it. A narrow view diminishes the possibility for accuracy.
“I do not want my house to be walled on all sides or my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But, I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” --Mohandas K. Gandhi
“All real living is meeting.” --Martin Buber
“Je’ est un autre.”: “The ‘I’ is an other.” --Rimbaud
“Abandon all hope you who enter.” --Dante Alighieri, Inferno, III, 9
“Some travelers want to go to foreign places but are dismayed when the places turn out actually to be foreign.” --Margaret Atwood
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” --T.S. Eliot
“A society without strangers would be impoverished; to live only among ourselves, constantly inbreeding, never facing an outsider to make us question again and again our certainties and rules, would inevitably lead to atrophy. The experience of encountering a stranger--like the experience of suffering--is important and creative; provided we know when to step back.” --Elie Wiesel
“…but you have no need to go anywhere--journey within yourself.” --Rumi, 13th century Sufi poet
“No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it gives us equal distance into the world within.” --Lillian Smith
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.” --Mark Twain
One of the most valuable experiences in my life was as an American Field Service summer exchange student to Denmark with 40 some other students from all over the United States. Because we lived in homes across the country and were together in the beginning for orientation, in the middle, and at the end, my insight was opened to things foreign to me about people of my own country as well as things of those from another country.
It sealed a change in focus on to people, as I discovered the importance of walking in the shoes of another. It created a paradigm shift in thinking and a comprehension that my perceptions of anything were based on my narrow world; others might have different views based on entirely different world realities. My mind was not only opened to a larger understanding of styles of government like socialism and democracy, but even to things I thought until then more singular to the United States like race and prejudice as I observed xenophobia towards Turkish people living there. I've learned not to be a visitor in the connotation of the ugly american, but a guest more akin to the heroic character of the original source of the phrase - "... who lives with the local people, comes to understand their needs, and gives genuinely-useful assistance...", here and abroad.
The key is to gain as much understanding as possible about any given situation so as to be able to narrow down to the key factors to be considered in order to make the best possible decisions in regards to it. A narrow view diminishes the possibility for accuracy.
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