So what do you tell an adult who has never been to a place that you know very well, and hold dear to your heart?
It’s a bit easier, in some ways, to explain it to a small child. A child is trusting, and they look in your eyes to see a smile, and listen to your voice, to hear if it is soothing. They are naïve, and look to you for protection and safety. They only need to know that they will be fed, and be kept from anything that might cause them discomfort.
Kids are easy.
Grownups are a little more tough. They develop likes and dislikes, they develop and cement an inner sense of comfort and discomfort. Anyone who travels a bit comes to realize this about human nature. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It is a bit of genetic programming that keeps us safe and secure, and is testament to our social nature, and how we are better suited to survive in groups.
I can’t imagine what was going through Emma’s mind, as she took her first steps onto that gangway onto a plane in Indianapolis, on her way out of everything she had come to know as “comfortable”, and journey to the place where she was born.
I was born in America. I feel it is ok for me to "behave American". I grew up in Florida. It’s acceptable for me to say, “I’ve got Florida in my blood”. I am a very good swimmer. I am very critical of my shrimp. I have no problem with snakes, and I know which ones are poisonous. Most are not, and I am glad to have them around to keep the frog and rat population down. I know that most of the time, alligators are nothing to be afraid of. I think swamps are absolutely beautiful. I love hot dogs, apple pie, and rock and roll. A good ol’ Florida boy. A good ol’ American boy.
Just a little over 100 years ago, however, my genetic material was located in a desolately poor part of Eastern Europe. No shrimp, no alligators, no apple pie, and certainly no rock and roll. Life was tough, short, and incredibly different than where I am now. I know, I visited the birthplace of my great-grandmother in Czech Republic several years ago.
But when people look at me, do they expect that I have “farming in my blood”? or that I should somehow feel a propensity to eating cabbage and potatoes? (although honestly, I have no earthly clue as to what in the world my great-grandparents ate)?
No.
They see a middle class white American guy. Bald. But very attractive….
I digress.
But what does Emma feel now? In the mirror is a person from China. But what will she feel when I meet her in the land of her birth, returning back for the first time after 18 years? She left China as in infant, barely aware of her surroundings, and now she is a blossoming young adult, an accomplished musician, an aspiring member of her society intent on doing good in the world.
I know some of the truth. I know that she will be much more of a stranger to China than I am. I will not look at her as a Chinese person that will instantly remember “who she is”, and expect her to know how to use chopsticks, or feel comfortable in a land I love. It would be about as much as to expect me to know what to do on a farm, or to instantly salivate over cabbage and potatoes (again, NO idea if my great-grandparents ever ate the stuff). Emma is good ol’ American girl, from Indiana. And she told me that I should be sure to know that “I don’t like chicken at every meal, like those typical SOUTHERN Indiana people”. I have absolutely no clue what that means, but it makes me smile. She is, like we all are, mostly a product of nurture, not nature.
I greeted the good ol’ Indiana girl in the Shanghai airport. Even though I had met her before in Indiana, I was unsure if I missed her in the throngs of people coming out of the airport luggage area. I am ashamed to admit that I was keeping an eye out for the exception in the crowd, which was her mother. I was wracked with anticipation as my eyes shifted through the endless stream of travel weary people walking the gauntlet of waiting relatives and taxi drivers. Americans are pretty easy to pick out. We tend to wear brightly colored clothes, dress more casually than most countries, and smile a lot. As if on cue, there they were....
I was relieved to see that they seemed none the worse for wear for their long journey, and were not too dazed and confused by the time change.
We had a lot of ground to cover, in a very short period of time, and so off we went to get started on our Grand Adventure.
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