We don’t live in the same universe

One of my biggest lessons from traveling the world is how much we truly under-appreciate the vast differences that exist between our perceptions of reality and that of different peoples around the world.

This is true, even on the minor level of you and your neighbor consuming different media and having different politics or beliefs. But on an international level, the distance gets far grander.

It’s easy for us to imagine that if an alien were to land from a spaceship, we would likely have clearly different values and conceptions of reality. But when it comes to other people around the world, because of the superficial similarities we witness, we don’t fully appreciate that we are actually existing in very different universes.

It’s only when you spend a prolonged period in one place that you start to really appreciate how the outlook of people in that world differs from yours, how their stories of evil and good differ, how their conceptions of work, family, play, life, vacation, and love differ.

My greatest learning from travel is actually humility. It is necessary to have the humility to experience, listen, learn, and absorb when entering a new world if you really wish to gather a glimpse of the way they see, think, feel, and live.

And that glimpse is truly a grand trip.

Wishing you fruitful expansions beyond your universe.

Naser