New Readers Note: My Weekend Wandering series is a time I take to wander off the main focus of this blog and discuss any other topic. Usually including videos that I found inspirational, informative or controversial. But if you'd like to talk about money read about how we obliterated debt in just 3 years.
Work has gotten crazy busy in the new year and if you read my first Weekend Wandering post then you know that Fridays is the day I set aside some time to be inspired and engaged. With the crazyness at work I had no time. Until last Friday!
The videos I watched did not disappoint. Not me at least.
The first video that caught my eye had the words tolerance and tourism in the title.
hmm that sounds interesting.
Check it out.
Yes! that is the kind of travel that I want to do. It’s the whole reason that I want to travel. To meet new people to expand my horizons my understanding. To be immersed in the local culture not just to see it, but to feel it, to taste it.
In case you didn’t catch it he said he started a company call Medji Tours.
Have you used this service? Please tell me about your experience in the comments.
To me its an amazing goal to position travel as a way to break down those cultural barriers.
To hear stories of people letting go of ingrained beliefs, to open the doors to these strangers, these”enemies”. I think this in honorable work.
On the topic of taring down walls and barriers the following video shows us how we don’t have to travel anywhere else to experience other cultures. To confront ingrained biases. That we can have the experiences talked about in the first video, where we connect with others right here at home.
Watch the following video.
Did you watch it all the way through? Or did you stop when you noticed her main topic was black men?
I’m not black and I’m not a man, but that didn’t stop me from associating with the message. I take great pride in knowing myself and as she spoke I identified with many things. My biases… my weakness.
She focused on black men but its not just about black people
It’s about Latinos
It’s about Asians
It’s about Religions
It’s about Gender
It’s about your sexual preferences
It’s about admitting that we do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. Unfortunately most of us aren’t objective all the time. We need to admit it.
I know I have some biases I need to work on. I admit I suffer from them and yes they were scripted into me. My parents surely suffered from it, likely it was scripted into them as well. For being Latina and a minority for having biases nailed on me I don’t want to do that to others.
So you don’t have to travel to break down those barrier. In America (specially California) we have a multitude of cultures available to us right at our door step, we just have to walk towards them. I was really touched by this talk. I would have cried if I wasn’t at work that is how intensely I felt it. I felt the tightness in my chest and back when I’m holding emotions back.
Yes, I have been on the receiving end and I could relate and though its hard to admit I have been on the delivering end also.
I don’t want to teach that to my children.
I want my children to have a different script… one of understanding.
I honestly believe travel is a great way to do it. I completely agree with the first talk.
In my about me page I tell you I want to ask you questions that cause you to think. I hope this wandering has done that, made you pause and question the “norm”.
If you haven’t discovered the wonders of TED or TEDx talks I HIGHLY recommend it.
Often, one’s problems can be found by looking in the mirror.
Yes. So true. That is why I know I need to work on myself.
We’ve been to over 40 countries between us, and for the most part people are the same everywhere. They might look different, speak different languages, wear different clothes, or pray to different gods, but we all have the same human needs and desires
There is a great part of The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman, where he interviewed people on both sides of a conflict (I believe it was Palestine / Israel in the book, but I can’t remember exactly)
Soldiers on both sides carried pictures of their children in their wallets, and talked about their hopes for a better future for them. If only people could focus on their similarities rather than their differenes
Wow thanks for sharing. Its true in our most basic form we are all the same. In Buddhism I think I read somewhere that when you look at people who need to focus on visualization. Like seeing their bones, their muscles, their veins as a way to strip away all the stuff that doesn’t really matter.
Buts it takes time to unlearn stuff and I know like the video mentions that there are times that my behavior is not in alignment with what I believe are my values.
I want to travel more for the same reason it opens your eyes.
[…] amazing how one conversation can break down barriers. All those negative thoughts that popped in my head, they have been challenged and now I can see […]