Home for a Week

I am guessing that a lot of our regular followers have signed off. I understand, but it will take me a while to digest this trip and return to normal. Some of my closest friends say this was not my state when I left so I cannot return to it. I have lost all interest in these esoteric, academic and nit-picky arguments, but given that I raised it, I want to say a few things.

I think that we, here in the USA, are the ones that are out-of-touch with the normal. I am watching BBC news right now, and they arguing about how long the government can keep information on individuals in their files. Yawn!!!! Now I am watching Ma Jing in China talking about the domestic market being saturated and making case for entering the global market. Now I understand . No I don't. Life is much simpler than we make it.

What we did for two months in South America was rub elbows with the people. These people were very different from me in background, education, income, experiences, expectations, living conditions, and anything else you can add to the list. We in the United States of America are different. And let me add, we don't understand the rest of the world. We can't given our coddled environment.

I am not blaming anyone, not even my mother; I don't think you could expect to live the way we do and expect any real understanding of how the rest of the world lives. Let's leave it at that I am really glad to be home to enjoy a standard of living that I enjoy as a result of getting a good education and working hard, but more than any other reason is that I was born white in a family that expected me to go to college in the United States. I may sound like a Republican, but after this trip I am not.

I wish that we could send 300,000,000 people on a similar trip, just so they can appreciate what I am feeling after a week at home. I called Yamaha this morning and they say they cannot provide the motorcycles. Rest my case. I am not going to change everyone, so let's break out the wine and celebrate. We are the luckiest people on earth; let's not forget this simple fact. If I had been born at 14000 feet in Bolivia, I would be a different person. Primarily, I would have tougher feet.