22 Diversity in a Changing World
Becoming an expat doesn’t mean you will be completely disconnected from your old life. Rather, it means that your world suddenly gets much larger. Much, much larger. Let’s consider one typical example. While you may not be able to indulge in the marvelous shrimp nachos as they were prepared by your favorite Mexican restaurant in your old life, there will be a plethora of new taste sensations to explore in your new location. But, to do that, you must be open to trying new foods, new combinations, and new taste sensations. As an expat, this will be a frequent occurrence. This exemplifies a more expansive, diverse worldview.
Thanks to the Internet, the world is getting smaller and smaller. Today, it is possible to instantly communicate with people anywhere in the world. It is possible to digitally convey every aspect of our lifestyle, regardless of physical location. Differences don’t seem so daunting when you get to know an individual well.
This modern worldview is vastly different from people living in the past. Not so long ago, becoming an expat meant breaking almost all ties with your old life. Just as jet lag was not a big issue in their life when people traveled by horse, today’s expat faces many new issues previous generations never had to consider. These challenges and opportunities require a changed worldview. What was sufficient in your old life may be woefully inadequate or even inappropriate when you try to transfer it to your new life.
As an example, I am recalling a recent week filled with the many steps in the process of self-publishing a book. There were myriad technical issues and decisions that required communicating with my support team and with other professionals. These subprojects often were progressing independently but simultaneously. Arranging for advance readers all around the world took lots of time, too. It was multitasking on steroids. Everything was conducted digitally so it didn’t matter if I was exchanging messages with a person in sunny California or sunny Thailand or someone in Norway where the sun might not even be shining.
Additionally, with digital messaging, there is little time lag between sending a message and when we begin expecting a response. With increasing numbers of people requiring information, confirmations, clarifications, detailed instructions, authorizations, online payments, decisions, and coordination, it can become an exercise in cat herding.
Then, in the middle of this digital busyness and coping with the cascade of further complications and final decisions, I came across a blog post that offered a most interesting contrasting worldview. It was written from a farm in New Zealand. It spoke about a life about as far from the culture and digital lifestyle of my current city with its many millions of people as it is possible to achieve. Plus, living in the southern hemisphere, her seasons were reversed, which means she was just entering spring lambing season while we in the northern hemisphere were getting ready for fall and winter. There is an inherent, inevitable worldview difference between Northerner Hemisphere dwellers and those who think Christmas is a summer holiday. And that’s just the tip of the diversity iceberg.
As an exercise in developing the expat mindset, try looking out your window after reading about the lambing season on the farm in the New Zealand springtime. It makes you aware that people on the same planet can have very, very different views and expectations, depending upon what they see out their window. As a young child, you went through a process called socialization in which you learned the unspoken but recognized rules for getting along with the people around you. What you probably didn’t realize – most people never do – is that, in a different place or generation, you would have learned a different set of rules - perhaps very different rules, perhaps very, very different rules. Sadly, most people never realize that they can still learn different rules. Fortunately, most people never have a need to learn that fact or to repeat the socialization process. As an expat, you will be confronted with the need for consciously choosing new rules, a new worldview. Recognizing that different worldviews are equally valid is the first step to respecting diversity.
The Internet allows us to be aware of people around the world, some of them living very different lifestyles from ours. In this era of international tensions, trade wars, and suspicion of any group that looks different from us, I find this connectivity which the Internet makes possible to be a refreshing balance to the jingoism, unconscious provincialism, and self-serving ignorance.
So, as I sat reading an article about the spring lambing season on a farm in New Zealand, I tried to visualize the world outside her window. Then I thought about other opportunities for celebrating the diversity of life and lifestyles that we have available to us today. As an expat, you will have endless opportunities for recognizing different worldviews.
Viva diversity! If nothing else, an expat gets a new set of holidays to enjoy while continuing to celebrate your old ones.