08.24.08
Sinatra & Soweto
Terrorism. Bloodshed. Car bombings. Armageddon. Anyone want to go to Israel with me for this week’s installment of Comedy Around the World? A hotbed of tourist and terrorist activity. You can put off this trip for the rest of your life, if you are waiting until it is a ’safe’ time to go. On the trip, that is…
These stereotypical impressions that I had about Israel show how humor can change our perspective. I didn’t encounter any terrorists, other than Saddam Hussein sending rockets into TelAviv. Again. Of course I was terrified, and especially at my mom’s fax telling me to come home immediately! But my host family’s mother had a different opinion about Saddam. “Oh, he is always doing that, trying to scare us. The news only shows the drama and violence. They never just show people eating a sandwich for lunch.” That is the more ‘typical’ Israel.
Score one for perspective transformation.
During the trip, I stayed at a kibbutz outside Nazareth. It was during Christmas season. Nazareth in December was vibrant with kitschy Christmas lights, dust-covered butcher shop signs, Arabs, noises, and–Frank Sinatra Park?? What was going on? This isn’t Israel, is it? Or is it Bayonne, New Jersey? I laughed to myself at my fear of what I’d find in Israel–the danger, the terror, the large donations made by American pop singers. Score two for perspective transformation.
December 31, 11:45 pm, and I was at Soweto, a reggae-type of dance club. This will be great, I thought. To celebrate the new year in this place, with the locals, in this interesting country! But as it got closer to midnight, no one was in any hurry to celebrate. Bob Marley was still singing, “No Woman, No Cry.” People were dancing, talking–but no one was counting down the new year!
Score three for perspective transformation, I thought, as the Scandinavian tourists at the next table explained the story to me. Israel’s New Year isn’t until sometime next Fall! To them, January 1st, 12:00:01 has absolutely no significance!
We can hold our viewpoint so tightly sometimes that we can’t see the truth of a situation. Luckily we have travel, to show us where we are wrong. To remind us that we are safe. And to let us tell others this truth. And, we can do this no matter where our ‘travels’ are–whether they are out of the country, a new route home from work, a trip to the store, or a walk in the woods. Our perspective is pliable. And it can be very, very funny.
“Get Your SHINE Together!” Where will YOU go?
