Nothing is as it seems.
There’s a phenomenon that occurs when one emigrates that I want to name:
The understanding that nothing is really as it seems, nor how it was once presented or taught to us.
Travel in its own right does something magical for us: it makes us aware of the fact that we see the world through a specific lens and so do other people who were raised in other places and those lenses may not be the same. If you’re available for it and willing to immerse yourself, travel is the easiest and fastest way to truly open your mind.
But when one ultimately decides to put down roots somewhere other than their home country — either by choice or necessity — they inevitably begin to gather new awarenesses and perspectives and learn things which were somehow distorted back at home, which run much deeper. Things which an entire nation has identified themselves by for years.
Here are some examples:
Columbus didn’t discover the US. The Vikings did, hundreds of years earlier. Danes learned this in school and it’s documented that Vikings from the Scandinavian region were sailing to North America for lumber as early as the 900s AD. They didn’t stay because they couldn’t: local natives were basically the only match for Vikings that existed at the time. In fact they were stronger. What eventually had North American indigenous people meet their demise? Syphilis from Southern Europe five hundred some odd years later. That is what Columbus should be known for but isn’t.
When I traveled to Cuba I encountered a lived experience of there being the possibility of two conflicting truths and also the realization that much of what really happened is being obscured from everyone. Raul and Fidel Castro had and have a particular agenda in the narrative they tell Cubans about their history. And so did and does the United States. Most Americans believe Cuba must be a dangerous place if it is embargoed, meanwhile, they have one of the highest literacy rates in the world and it’s one of the safest places on earth. That's right: Cubans are collectively smarter and better educated than Americans are. They are also more humanitarian. Cubans make up the bulk of the doctors in MSF (Doctor's Without Borders).
My friend Nik lost his iPad there one day while we were traveling through Cienfuegos, a piece of technology worth almost a two year income for the average Cuban, and six hours later when he discovered it was missing, it was returned to him by the person who found it. To this day my experience is that most Americans have a grossly distorted view of Cuba and any politics related to it, mostly because, by way of the embargo, they’ve been prevented from accessing anything other than what the US has wanted Americans to see. Meanwhile the rest of the world did not embargo Cuba and has seen something entirely different; something significantly more than just Guantanamo Bay (otherwise known as "the place really dangerous criminals go").
The same is true of Israel and Palestine. If you’re American and you’re reading this, I want you to know that what the rest of the world has been hearing about that region, and what Americans have been hearing, are two VERY different stories. And this has been going on for decades.
If you think you live in the land of the free, where there is freedom of press, that too is a distortion.
It’s hard to find non partisan reporting on the topic in the US. The US are strong allies with Israel and that’s all any of us ever hear (to the degree that as a child I believed Israel must be an American territory), and that relationship supports an even bigger narrative around the dangers of the Middle East and the threat that region presents to American soil which I suspect has more to do with oil than the threat of Islam, personally. Because of the way things are all tangled up in the states, every politician will almost always be obligated to diverge from the topic and continue to support only Israel as though Palestine is made up of a bunch of heathens. To do anything less would compromise on America’s perceived power in the global economy, as well as their no-questions-asked fear-factor in terms of brute military force (which makes up the bulk of your tax dollars). This is something Europeans have been talking about for years.
Because of this — because Israel is where Jewish people live and Palestine is where Muslims live (which isn’t even true, Palestine was once home to at least three different religions, including Judaism, and had zero conflict amongst them) — and because Americans have been raised to believe Jews are our friends and Muslims are terrorists, the view of what could possibly be happening there gets distorted. And it becomes an argument about religion when it has actually nothing to do with that except that’s what we were all told.
I don’t usually stake claim in this sort of thing publicly because there is so much nuance which can not be captured when the topic of war and politics and religion is presented. It’s charged and people have strong opinions and they want to be heard and they feel offended when someone else has a different perspective.
But I’ve been to the Middle East and it’s not nearly as awful as I once was told it was by US politics and media. In fact, that region is one of the most beautiful regions I’ve ever traveled to (and I’ve been to over 50 countries). And the Muslim people amongst the kindest.
In my time living abroad I’ve met Israelis and Palestinians (and Turks and Iraqis and Afghanis and Iranians and Kurds and Egyptians and Moroccans, etc) who are extraordinary humans. I’ve also met Israelis and Palestinians who have been caught in the crossfire, too. Who are angry and righteous and rightly so considering their individual experiences.
Meanwhile I’ve been watching and listening and informing myself and experiencing these places first hand to the degree they have been accessible to me as an American and the biggest conclusion I can get to is this:
Nothing is as it seems.
Nothing.
I’m grateful to have spent my formative years having this reality grilled into my skull as I wandered the globe lest I ever forget it.
Nothing is as it seems.
A willingness to look just underneath the surface or just beyond the horizon no matter the topic is a beneficial trait to develop for any human. Learning to think critically is an important life skill.
If you find yourself feeling certain about what you know, be willing to question your certainty. Be willing to consider that you might not have the full story, or that perhaps someone else — equally certain — could have a different interpretation.
Be open to that possibility and then listen.
Be willing to lovingly advocate for all human experience and not just the parts you agree with.
It reminds me of this story:
Six blind men were taken to experience an elephant. None of them had ever experienced an elephant before and each man was stationed at one part of the enormous creature. One at the hind leg, one at the tail, one at the ear, one at the trunk, one at the belly, and so on. They were invited to engage with and touch the elephant, and then after some time were brought together to share their experiences with one another.
One man begins to share how the elephant is thin and wirey and how it flips around with abandon. Another describes a massive wall of rough immovable texture. A third describes thin moving plates with rough edges which are loose and move around with the wind. They began arguing with one another, sure that everyone else was wrong, and that their singular experience was the true one, because they had lived it first hand.
Until someone chimed in to let them know that in fact, they were all correct.
