I can see clearly now
No better witnesses than your own eyes
~ Ethiopian Proverb
Are we really looking? Or do we see things in the same way?
Travel broadens our vision. I’m not talking about package holidays. In truth, how much do we learn from lounging by hotel pools in resorts?
Real travel challenges our vision of ourselves, our country and our world. Are we open to learning from somewhere else? Are we looking out? Or do we believe that the country of our birth holds all the answers?
Do we look at our home country critically? We may not always like what we see. We don’t need to.
But we should be open to taking a look. Open to introspection. Do we look in?
We had eye tests recently. A whole series of specialist checks; Tonometry, Field Test, Auto refraction, Cover Test, Ocular Motillity, Retinoscopy, Refraction and Visual acuity.
The Optician informed me that my eye sight had not changed. My actual eyesight.
How I see the country of birth is another matter. That has changed over time. That vision has been sharpened with each and every move overseas. Acuity of mind.
Maybe our ‘eyesight’ gets better with age. When we are young, our frame of reference is narrow. Home is all we know.
We’re blindly patriotic. We defend home. Tunnel vision.
I see more clearly now; The corporate BS, the vested interests, the politics. I see through it all.
I’m not unpatriotic. I recognize many, many positives about the country of my birth. But I also see its flaws.
You start to see the place differently. On recent trips to U.K we were immediately struck by the parochial nature of current affairs. We craved news of other places.
It was surprising, watching the BBC news, that the ‘Strictly Come Dancing final’ made the headlines. How is this news? On the national radio channel, the discussion was about a TV program called Storage Wars.
The press seemed obsessed with the weather and Brexit.
When asked about South Africa and what something costs, someone would invariably say something like, “but what’s that in proper money?” Such supremacy!
When visiting a U.K supermarket, we couldn’t find many of the products that we wanted to buy. After a while we realized that most of what we were looking for was located on the so called ‘ethnic’ aisle. It seemed that our palate had changed too, as well as how we see things.
For us, after living in many countries, we see the positives of many places. If I could take the best of all the countries we’ve lived in, that would be a perfect place.
Imagine that street, with all the best things, in terms of politics, culture, food and music. What would that look like?
I’m reminded of the poem, The British by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
We are a people living in shells and moving
Crablike; reticent, awkward, deeply suspicious;
Watching the world from a corner of half-closed eyelids,
Afraid lest someone show that he hates or loves us,
Afraid lest someone weep in the railway train.
We are coiled and clenched like a foetus clad in armour.
We hold our hearts for fear they fly like eagles.
We grasp our tongues for fear they cry like trumpets.
We listen to our own footsteps. We look both ways
Before we cross the silent empty road.
We are a people easily made uneasy,
Especially wary of praise, of passion, of scarlet
Cloaks, of gesturing hands, of the smiling stranger
In the alien hat who talks to all or the other
In the unfamiliar coat who talks to none.
We are afraid of too-cold thought or too-hot
Blood, of the opening of long-shut shafts or cupboards,
Of light in caves, of X-rays, probes, unclothing
Of emotion, intolerable revelation
Of lust in the light, of love in the palm of the hand.
We are afraid of, one day on a sunny morning,
Meeting ourselves or another without the usual
Outer sheath, the comfortable conversation,
And saying all, all, all we did not mean to,
All, all, all we did not know we meant.
Tessimond is deeply critical. He highlights a nation of people living carefully. He captures the ‘Don’t get too big for your boots’ psyche. The “Ooo, I wouldn’t do that” people you can meet every day.
About 10 years ago we moved from a ‘can’t do’ society to a ‘can do’ one, the UAE. You were encouraged to dream big. Enterprise was applauded and people shared a common goal, to create a better life.
We no longer had to ‘hold our hearts’. We could be more. ‘Flying like eagles’ was an option.
Perhaps you only can achieve some level of introspection when you really change your life and step out of your comfort zone, moving far from the country of your birth. Then you no longer see the country of your birth through rose coloured spectacles
Has your ‘eyesight’ changed over time? Do you see the country of your birth differently after travelling or living in another country?
©Maggie M / Mother City Time