The Other Half

Even though I'm not in the US yet, I have entered back into the developed world, the "other half." The land of man-made glories - cathedrals and skyscrapers acting as mountains of concrete, stone, glass and marble, a long history and continued proliferation of art and music, adornment and showing of wealth in fashion and life, and the encouraged consumption of indulgences (being in Italy, centrally food). Walking along a large sidewalk covered in an arch, passing shops and cafes, I felt proud of our achievements. What a fine world we can make!

Drawing on the experiences from the first part of my trip, I came to realize how fleeting these achievements are. Having seen Angkor and now, Roman, ruins, I know that while a strong civilization provides plenty of joy and pleasure to its people, it only lasts as long as the civilization itself. Like all things, its a cycle - our sources of wealth can go away and with them, our ability to enjoy finer things and build our worlds with style.

When that happens, we are back to the simple, poor life, one that exists today in so many parts of the world. Knowing that is can happen makes you wonder - what is the meaning of all of life's luxuries? Clearly, they aren't central to living, they are merely nice-to-haves, something we should appreciate while we have them, but don't need to depend on. Does that cause us to look at our lives differently? Eating, shopping, having, planning - are we consciously choosing how to spend our thought energy or time? So many things present themselves to us, but not all of them are real.

Besides being able to sift through our needs, I also realized the pressure of the modern world to be better. Coming back into a world where so many things are right - clean, in order, on time - I realize that we very quickly pick out the small percent of things are not right - seeing the flaws. Whereas in a world like the one in Cambodia, where so many things are not right, we are much more likely to accept these inconveniences and instead focus on the good things. Another pitfall we can maybe overcome.