Secret worlds
Apr. 25th, 2009 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranI've been sick for the last week and I'm only just starting to get my voice back. Being without my voice has really brought home how much pleasure I get from daily human interaction. Not being able to chat with the staff at a new Vietnamese restaurant (where I went in the hope and conviction that a bowl of pho would cure all ills) or lady who runs Liem's daycare centre or the owner of our local cafe really made me appreciate just how much of a difference these things make to my life.
Long ago, when I was a child, I used to dream of having my own little bubble world where I could escape to whenever I wanted. It wasn't that I was unhappy - far from it, in fact, just that there were times when I just wanted to alone with my own imagination.
At some point, and I'm not sure when, all this changed when I started to realize that our world really is full of hidden other worlds, and that the key to them was other people. One of the triggers for this was certainly getting the travel bug and coming to realize just how much my perception was distorted by preconceptions I wasn't even aware of. Then, as I started language learning and preparing for other trips, I started to realize that there was no reason you couldn't have the same feelings of discovery and entering new worlds without even leaving home at all - and that some people did that all the time.
The first step was trying to get to know better all those people who filled my life, but whom I barely knew (and he barely knew me). For a natural introvert, this was a painful process, and by my assessment, nowhere near as successful as I'd like. I envy those people who seem to be able to strike up friendships where ever they go (or the French people I saw in Paris who would walk into a café and start off by shaking hands with the proprietor then manage two or three minutes of smalltalk before being shown their seats). But I have been making slow progress, and, now that a lot of work has been put it in, I'm starting to see some returns.
And these secret worlds? Well, besides just knowing and being known by the people you live with, the other big payoff is being granted access to the secret places and stories that can't be seen from the surface. Like knowing that every "Japanese" sushi shop in my area is actually Korean owned and staffed, apparently completely unnoticed by anyone else. Or being able to see the city from German immigrant eyes and being able to see a completely different landscape. A butcher's shop in this suburb, a "German" shop (unknown as such by everyone else) with the right kind of gingerbread in another one. Or driving over Tom Ugly's Bridge and hearing the story from an ex-neighbour about how he stood guard in front of it during WWII after the Japanese mini-sub attack (it's still there, so obviously something worked).
For a fantasy fan, it was somewhat ironic that these secret worlds were there all the time, and all it took was a little effort to reach out to find them.
Long ago, when I was a child, I used to dream of having my own little bubble world where I could escape to whenever I wanted. It wasn't that I was unhappy - far from it, in fact, just that there were times when I just wanted to alone with my own imagination.
At some point, and I'm not sure when, all this changed when I started to realize that our world really is full of hidden other worlds, and that the key to them was other people. One of the triggers for this was certainly getting the travel bug and coming to realize just how much my perception was distorted by preconceptions I wasn't even aware of. Then, as I started language learning and preparing for other trips, I started to realize that there was no reason you couldn't have the same feelings of discovery and entering new worlds without even leaving home at all - and that some people did that all the time.
The first step was trying to get to know better all those people who filled my life, but whom I barely knew (and he barely knew me). For a natural introvert, this was a painful process, and by my assessment, nowhere near as successful as I'd like. I envy those people who seem to be able to strike up friendships where ever they go (or the French people I saw in Paris who would walk into a café and start off by shaking hands with the proprietor then manage two or three minutes of smalltalk before being shown their seats). But I have been making slow progress, and, now that a lot of work has been put it in, I'm starting to see some returns.
And these secret worlds? Well, besides just knowing and being known by the people you live with, the other big payoff is being granted access to the secret places and stories that can't be seen from the surface. Like knowing that every "Japanese" sushi shop in my area is actually Korean owned and staffed, apparently completely unnoticed by anyone else. Or being able to see the city from German immigrant eyes and being able to see a completely different landscape. A butcher's shop in this suburb, a "German" shop (unknown as such by everyone else) with the right kind of gingerbread in another one. Or driving over Tom Ugly's Bridge and hearing the story from an ex-neighbour about how he stood guard in front of it during WWII after the Japanese mini-sub attack (it's still there, so obviously something worked).
For a fantasy fan, it was somewhat ironic that these secret worlds were there all the time, and all it took was a little effort to reach out to find them.
