This picture was taken last week at Nakoda Lodge in Morley, Alberta, Canada. Prior to coming here, I didn't really know where Alberta was. I've been to Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia. I had been to Ottawa but I can't exactly pinpoint it on a map. But I was surprised to find out that the Rockies went up through Alberta, seeing these beautiful mountains from the airplane window!It's funny how much I learn and expand once I leave the confines of city life. Especially in San Francisco, and I've found this experience in Manhattan as well, many people find life outside of these areas to be non-existent. I've talked with people who abhor even crossing the Bay Bridge to Oakland! Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore!
Traveling outside the country helps to loosen me up. Using paper money and coins that I have to look at up close to figure out how much it is. Hearing accents and different words ("washroom" instead of "bathroom", sedjewel instead of skedjewel for the word "schedule"). Seeing the dollar devalued with each passing day...
Being in these different environments reminds me that life isn't as rigid and set in stone as it seems. As communities, societies and social networks, we come up with an agreed upon set of rules and practices that govern how we relate to each other. We grow up conforming and accepting things as they are without asking the question - "What's the purpose of this? What's it really for?"
Take, for example, growing up and learning about the four basic food groups: dairy, meat, vegetables/fruit, and breads/cereal. I learned in elementary school that I had to eat something from each of these groups to be healthy. But in the early 1990s there was a move to change the four food groups to not include meat and dairy. This caused an uproar among those in the meat and dairy industry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture espoused these four food groups since 1956 and our increasing knowledge of what foods are healthy has now thrown these food groups out the window. More and more people are eating vegetarian, vegan, raw and live foods, moving to alkaline diets and lifestyles. People are tuning into what works for their own bodies and what makes them feel good.
In a nutshell, I would offer that it's good to question things and to come up with our own conclusions rather than automatically buying what someone is telling us what we ought to buy.
The next time a small child responds "Why?" such as in "Why do I have to eat everything on my plate?", instead of immediately saying "Because I said so," take a moment to ponder the question. It might be the right question to loosen you up and realize, "I'm not in Kansas anymore!"
