You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
I had long ago learned that when you are the giant, alien visitor to a remote and foreign culture it is sort of your job to become an object of ridicule. It’s the least you can do, really, as a polite guest.
Interpretation
Being an outsider in a new culture comes with expectations of humility and humor.
This quote reflects on the experience of being a visitor in a foreign culture, emphasizing that as a guest, one should embrace their differences and accept the likelihood of being ridiculed. Instead of reacting defensively, the speaker suggests that acknowledging one's status as an outsider with grace and humor is a sign of respect and politeness toward the local culture.
In practice
During a speech about cultural exchange at a conference, you might use this quote to highlight the importance of embracing differences.
You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness. And what could possibly bring a person more soaring happiness than romantic love.
When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilling yearnings.
Let there be nothing within thee that is not very beautiful and very gentle, and there will be nothing without thee that is not beautiful and softened by the spell of thy presence.
I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together.
Take away all your labels and you are the Infinite Being.
The road to the sacred leads through the secular.
Oh, come! That boot is on the other leg. Why should you call me to account for eating decently? If I battened on the scorched corpses of animals, you might well ask me why I did that
When explorers first encountered my people, they called us heathens, sun worshippers. They didn't understand that the sun is a relative and illuminates our path on this earth.
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