Letting the days go by...

This is not my beautiful mall. This is not my beautiful Goth...

My God! What have I done!?!

I was playing basketball last week at the language university with my old high school friend. That is strange enough as it is. Then it turns out one of the other white guys on the court not only grew up in Virginia Beach - where my family lived for 15 years - he went to the same Grad School as I did.

Then another guy was here in China on vacation. He currently works for Harvard University. But not so long ago - he worked for a company here in China that also paid for one of my TV Series here. And he knew a lot of the same people I did.

And we all met up on a basketball court.
In China.

We talked about a lot of things - and I got sort of philosophical as I am wont to do - and they started glazing over as I drew all sorts of universal truths out of a seemingly random meeting...

But it did make me think about a lot of stuff.

I have often run off on a tangent about isolation. When people are isolated and surrounded by like minded individuals to the point that everyone looks the same and thinks the same - that start to assume that the rest of the world either:

a. Looks and thinks the same as they do. OR
b. Needs to look and think the same as they do. Or die a horrible death. Preferrably by fire.

Isolation leads to trouble. The best way to avoid becoming crazy is to surround yourself with people who don't think the same way you do and constantly re-evaluate why you have the world view you do. It doesn't mean that what you think is wrong - but it does give you a reality check.

China is a great example of what happens when you grow out of touch with the world. They were removed from modern life for a long time - and now they are starting the long road back to try to reach the present day. But they are doing it without a lot of discernment. They are reaching and grasping so fast that a lot of what makes them unique is going to get lost.

Racism is another great example of people developing thoughts in isolation.

Really - it all comes down to fear. What we don't know or understand - we fear. That black guy. Those Communists. Harry Potter...

And that fear makes us search out others who see the world like us. And we talk about our fears - and it makes us feel better. And soon we've created a group of people who all worry and fear the same things as us and we don't want to be around others who don't - cause they just don't get it - and boy will they be sorry when we are proved right.

But somewhere - somehow - people break out of that. And they do the impossible. They leave Italy and go to China and discover a new world. They quit their job and move to South America to live in a villiage. They bring medicine to Africa. They go work in the inner city. They write scripts about people doing those things. Or... they talk about writing scripts about people doing those things...

Years and years ago - my dad decided that working for the MAN was bringing him down. He was being asked to do things that he was morally against - so he quit. We were living a nice upper middle class life in a nice suburb in Southern Ohio. To keep up our house payments - the neighbors took pity on him and he started painting houses in the neighborhood.

One day he came down off a ladder and told us that he felt God was calling him to be a missionary.

I was in forth grade.

By the time I was 12 - I was growing up in Taiwan. Which is where I learned Chinese. Which is where the world first opened up to me. Which is where I saw firsthand the way isolation can ruin your heart.

But back to basketball.

At some point in each of these guys lives - they decided to leave what they were doing and do something else. Even halfway across the world. And they love it.

So many of us struggle with the job and the family and the writing - that we forget the adventure of the road less traveled. We get to open a window to a world that so many never see.

Three years ago - my family spent the summer in Puerto Rico putting up satellite dishes so that remote schools could get the internet. In truth, its probably so that the pricipals of those schools could get the internet - but it was a great experience for the kids.

This summer - they've got to spend a month in China. Seeing the world. Visiting new places.

Once you move past that one circle of influence - the world opens up and you start to see things in a whole new way. You can't go back to the little place you came from and forget.

There's nothing to fear. There are a lot of big ideas out there - and your ideas should be up for the challenge. In the process you get to bend and grow and change.

Every year I try to change a deep seated habit of mine just to prove to myself I can still change. Its hard and unpleasant - but I always feel good afterwards.

I hope as my kids grow up they see the world as one distinct place - completely open to them - ready to be explored.

As my daughter said to me yesterday: Daddy? what cool new place are we gonna go next summer?

Sorry for the rambling nature of the post. Its early... :)