david geiger’s first post

I am getting started with this thing in earnest now.  I don’t know what exactly I will write, or who will read, who might react, who might support, who might turn away in anger or revulsion, or even if it will make a difference to anyone else.  It will make a difference to me.  I am going to speak my mind, my voice, my thoughts, my dreams, my understanding of the world around me.  I hope I don’t scare anyone.  I hope I don’t scare myself.  I hope people can discern my sarcasm from seriousness. I don’t want to bore anyone.  I dont want to insult anyone.

Sometimes observations can be of fun things, sometimes of the mundane, but different, activities like eating with chopstix or a knife and fork.  So many social norms are applied or violated or abandoned when one finds oneself within another cultural group. It is not necessarily easy to really get inside another group.  It takes time to gain acceptance.  It takes time to build relationships of openness.  It takes time being seen alone surrounded by the other culture for the comfort and the welcoming of others to take place.  Feeling comfortble eating with chopstix at home with my Latin-American family is easy enough – not much basis for criticism there.  But eating with chopstix in front of an all Chinese table of people is a completely different thing.  There are so many intricate customs or habits at every step of the way – and I don’t understand most of them.  Where to put the chopstix down?  What if I dont want to eat that thing there?

I remember sitting in a simple dumpling restaurant facing the Yellow Sea south of Dalian, China, with Tang Jun and some of his friends when I dropped a dumpling on the table before it reached my plate.  I went to pick it up with my chopstix (to place it aside) and the whole table put their arms up “No” as if I was about to eat something that fell to the floor.  I thought, is the table so dirty?  Is this a simple mistake that Chinese people don’t make?  Is this just how they teach me not to drop things on the table?  I still dont know the answer.

Thank you for your interest!  Thank you for growing with me!

David

David Geiger, Saturday, November 2, 2018 in Johns Creek, GA