“But it’s where the Survivor was filmed!”
My parents like to take cruises. They took one to the small islands in the Pacific Ocean. One day, they sent me a photo of a lagoon. The caption was, “Blue Lagoon in Suvasuva where the Survivor was filmed.”
My parents are first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong. In their house, the TV is usually on in the kitchen. The only channel the TV ever plays is the satellite feed from Hong Kong. So, there’s the Hong Kong news, soap operas from Hong Kong, drama/comedies/sitcoms from Hong Kong, the Miss Hong Kong pageant… You know what it doesn’t have? Survivor. It definitely doesn’t have THE Survivor (my mother is fully fluent in English — she doesn’t make these kinds of grammatical mistakes, so “THE Survivor” is how she remembers the name.)
Here’s the thing. Apart from sending me a photo of her and my dad with her brother’s family (my uncle), I didn’t get any other photos of their cruise. So for to send this to me meant she thought it was important: either to me, or to her.
But Survivor isn’t important to my parents. I texted back, “I think this is hilarious given you probably don’t even know what Survivor is,” to which she retorted, “Sure we know. I have watched some episodes.” Hardly the words of a rabid, die-hard fan.
She didn’t send me the photo because it was particularly gorgeous. Or because that’s where the spent the day. The photo was taken from the bus as they passed by. But because a tour guide announced it, it made it important.
And yes, OF COURSE the tour guide announced because they are working a cruise ship that is populated mostly by Caucasian Americans. And yes, that announcement was probably REALLY important for those tourists who haven’t missed a single episode of Survivor in more than 15 years.
Important is relative. Important is contextual. It doesn’t matter if the study is the best, most flawless design, it still comes down to you and your practice and your patients and clients.
Important isn’t important because someone announces it. And especially when they’re not announcing it for you.
So is the important you’re paying attention to actually important to you? Or is this a case of “But it was on THE Survivor?”
Find out more at http://criticalmass.ninja
