There’s Nothing Like Experiencing a New Culture
It’s impossible to really take in a place until you go there. Landing in Tel Aviv and taking in the beautiful landscapes, the beautiful people, and the beautiful smells took my breath away. Israel is absolutely gorgeous.
When you hear about Israel on the news, all you hear about is the war, the strife, the oppression… and sometimes Waze. You never hear about the cohesion, the culture, and the camaraderie of the people. I expected a war-torn, unsafe nation. I found a verdant, inviting, flourishing culture of diverse viewpoints all bonded together by mutual respect and histories.
Vibrant. Illustrious. Industrious.
From afar, it’s easy to cast judgements without fully understanding the ground reality of a culture from the safety of our isolated bubbles and narrow viewpoints. People’s worldviews develop from their experiences. The beauty of humanity is that our experiences are so diverse, leading to diverse insights. It is closed-minded, in my opinion, to believe that one culture is superior to another. It is just different. In fact, I may go as far as to say it is another form of colonialism to impose one set of values on another culture, a form of “savior-ism”.
This does not mean we cannot or should not stand up for what we believe is right and wrong. We have the responsibility to embrace our own cultures and viewpoints and represent them to the best of our abilities. We have the responsibility to question them and to improve on them constantly, learning from other cultures rather than belittling them. Our excellence will push others in our direction.
In this way, we can learn to be more embracing of the entire world. There is no such thing as black and white — one group of people isn’t right all the time and another group of people isn’t wrong all the time. With this in mind, we can remember our common humanity and enjoy the beautiful sights, pleasures, and foods in beautiful countries like Israel and Palestine.
