Cultural Shock
Blithely unaware, we walk confidently through an invisible geographic door, only to find ourselves awestruck by a brand-new, utterly foreign world. A very old world. As if we have traveled back in time. We do not know the language. We do not know the people. We do not know the rules of this culture. We stand stunned by our astounding ignorance and inexperience. The moment unfolds as an all-encompassing cultural shock. We have to pause a moment to shed all that we have known before. To let go all the habits of a lifetime conditioned by location. A moment to imbibe our new sense of dislocation. An embracing disorientation. An unnerving apprehension for the foreignness outspread before us. But then, having had our moment, we smile. Oddly, irrationally, we think maybe we have actually come home.
Books by Joel R. Dennstedt
