20 Things I Learned From Traveling Around the World
(yes please!) which brought me to this article
10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America
whereby we learn that america is not the center of the world. wahhhhhh??
several things struck me
#1 In our social lives we don’t say what we mean and we don’t mean what we say.
In our culture, appreciation and affection are implied rather than spoken outright. Two guy friends call each other names to reinforce their friendship; men and women tease and make fun of each other to imply interest. Feelings are almost never shared openly and freely. Consumer culture has cheapened our language of gratitude. Something like, “It’s so good to see you” is empty now because it’s expected and heard from everybody.
so true. i wish we could get to point where people could be honest with people. but it's so hard and frustrating and when you actually do want to be honest with someone you have to delicate walk around the issue. you can't just be honest with them. why is honesty such a slap in the face? stupid.
#2 You don’t have to watch Fox News or CNN for more than 10 minutes to hear about how our drinking water is going to kill us, our neighbor is going to rape our children, some terrorist in Yemen is going to kill us because we didn’t torture him, Mexicans are going to kill us, or some virus from a bird is going to kill us. There’s a reason we have more guns than people.
we are sooooo paranoid. working in the job that i do, i hear constantly all the terrible things that could go wrong. and therefore, i carry a tazer.
#3 people don't care about america as much as we think they do. which is obvious. why are we obsessed with ourselves? i guess that goes without saying.
#4 i think my favorite part of this article was how he referred to america as his alcoholic brother. it's true. somethings you can only take in small doses. like when people get all 'merica!
overall, great read. nice to be able to take your mind out of country every now and then.
h