While cleaning out bookmarks on my laptop, I came across this post by Trish. It brought to mind an old post of my own, Modern Gypsies, which has little to do with culture - but has everything to do with culture. People, such as Trish and myself, see things in ways that are different than most.

Take for instance a few days ago, when I was in South Oropouche. I had just come out of the 'garden' after checking on my corn when I stopped and said hello to a neighbor. He told me that he had been invited to a Hindu pooja but had no way to get there, so I took him. Along the way we piled 4 more people into the pickup, got them to where the prayers were held, wished people well (after I changed into a less sweaty shirt) and then sat to eat - customary for some poojas. So while eating, I was introduced as a surveyor from Suriname.

I've been to Suriname. I'm not from Suriname. I can understand some of the Surinamese dialect, but if I try to speak it I appear as I should: not Surinamese. I know about surveying land, but I am not a surveyor. So why would I be introduced as such? In an odd way, it was the easiest explanation for the person who introduced me: I did not look Indian. When I started talking about parts of Hindu culture at the table, people explained it away: 'He is from Suriname'. It was a simple answer for them, and it explained away everything. It was also patently false, but that didn't matter to them and I didn't want to put the person who introduced me in a bad light - so I didn't deny it or support it. I was simply myself. And on the way back, after dropping everyone home, I pondered all of that.

A few weeks ago, I was in a restaurant and someone came up to me trying to speak Spanish. I say trying because it was some rather awfully accented Spanish from a Trinbagonian who tried too hard, but there it was. So they asked me where I was from, and I said 'San Fernando'. Milwaukee would have been too hard to explain, I thought, but they still didn't expect that answer. They said I was Venezualan, I said no. Then Colombian, and I said no. Finally I threw it to the wind and said I was from the Latin American region, which started a game of naming countries in Spanish... They settled on Nicaragua after I told them that I was from wherever it made them happy to think I was from.

I've traveled more than most. I've not stayed very often in hotels or tourist resorts, instead staying in places that allowed me to see how people lived - how they worked, how they did things and - if I'm lucky - some explanations. It all seems so worthwhile to me, but people - even people close to me - don't see much value in that. I often wondered why, but I have come to know why: I didn't grow up in one culture, I grew up among many. Because of that, I had to be aware of the different cultures, how to behave in the cultures and so forth.

A lot of people talk about culture, and they make it sound like they know something. No one really does. Some of us are in between, never accepted completely anywhere but partially accepted everywhere. If that doesn't give you a different perspective on things, I don't know what would. It isn't just religion or race, either - it's also economic status. A person who has always been rich would not understand what motivates a poor person to squat on land and grow produce to sell. A poor person would not understand that the person who owns the land would see them as a thief and a ne'er-do-well. It spins out of control. No one understands each other, and few actually try to do so. There is mistrust. There are, potentially, misdeeds. There is legal right and wrong, but that legal right and wrong isn't always accepted as right or wrong. It makes no sense.

I'll stick by what I wrote here:

...And sooner or later, even people in gilded cages realize that they only control the surroundings of what they fall through. They might even force people to conform to the reality that they impose, but it's not real. What is real is the fall, the eccentric spiral of life...

Indeed. The eccentric spiraling fall of Life. Some people fall down straight, others drift further. And I can't tell you why. I can tell you that I seem to drift further than most...