Things that Fly!

Reason to leave #1

I figure if this website is going to be featuring escape plans it should also be including reasons for escaping. There are so many it almost deserves a seperate blog, but we'll limit the cynicism (this is a hopeful blog) and try to keep the reasons to about one per week (estimated time until escape is about two years, so thats about 100 reasons until we leave).

The first reason to leave is because we are born into a culture, we do not choose it. This first reason to leave (here after refered to as RTL) seems like the most substantial of all RTLs on my mind. For most people being part of a culture doesn't seem like anything. The majority of people don't wake up in the morning and feel the strain of conformity pushing down on them-- in has become an unconscious thing. They turn on the television and accept the subtle and not so subtle suggestions that are presented to them, they desire expensive cars and feel attracted to obviously surgically altered men and women. But this RTL isn't to complain about the culture that surrounds me right now (I get carried away with that all the time), this RTL is to point out that there are so many more cultures out there than they one that surrounds us. Yes North America (western civilization) may be a large culture and one that seems to cover the world like a plague, but when you travel over seas you really do see that people subscribe to substantially different lifestyles than our own. You see smarter, healthier, and more earth conscious cultures that are not without their own faults but are fundamentally different. Swaying the otherway now I'm neither here to comment on how much better I think other places are, I'm just trying to point out that people do things differently in other places and just because we started out in one place doesn't mean we can't simply get up and move to a place that suits us better.

I think this is a concept that few people think about, just truly and simply escaping. It doesn't cross most people's minds because most people think they would be leaving too much behind if they picked up a left. But the way I see it it's ridiculous to stay in a place that you don't feel you belong to..

I don't think that I have found a place that feels like "Home". I think instead I found a person who feels like "home". It's definately a hopeful start. And even though I don't feel like anyof the places I've travelled to would be a perfect place to settle down, I feel like it's a big world and there are plenty of places to explore yet. And even if nothing comes up, it's more than pleasant to know that we can always start our own culture.

I think I'm going to need another list; "Components of our Culture". I'll start filling it with ideas I think would work better than the way I see them now.

It feels like I'm starting in the middle here, but more explanations to come.

posted by Rob and Lauren @ 12:37 AM