I just had an argument with Cactus, and realized something else. People always talk about “open-minded” and “close-minded”, using these concepts in life sometimes is misleading, because people have different levels of vision, and they cannot be simply classified into just two groups.

I thought that Cactus is “open-minded” when I first got to know him, because he doesn’t refuse to talk to minorities or to people of a totally different background, not like some Americans that only stick to their own American group. But today I found that he actually has been judging me all the time, he thinks that I’m not respectful, and I’m not able to totally adjust and adapt to American culture and life even after two years. Most people, if they don’t have experience of living in a totally different culture for some time, would agree with him, but the truth is, for Chinese people in America for example, one year or even several months more experience in America would make a huge difference. We are learning about American culture everyday, and there is so much about it that you would never be able to become an “American” if you were not born here, no matter how hard you learn. Being able to understand this is hard, and it relates to one’s experience, insight and vision.

So far, I can see three levels of vision. One group of people, they stick to their misconception about other group and culture, and they refuse to listen, they insist being blocked by their conceit; the second group of people are open to different cultures, but they are not willing to or don’t have a chance to experience more of the world, so they are vulnerable to culture conflicts, they tend to think in their way and judge others when they get a chance; the third group of people have traveled and experienced the world, and they learned how to respect and communicate, they learned to think in other people’s shoes and to be very careful when dealing with a different culture. Most of us fall into the second group, we learned a little bit about other parts of the world from here and there, but we are too busy building up wealth at where we are without being able to stop or control ourselves. We can only see what’s in front of us, we are blind to the rest of it and we are unaware of it.

Maybe I will see more and make the list more complete down the road, but to let all of you know, please go travel and try to be the last group of people. People talk about travel as a hobby, but it’s really not per se. The experience you get is beyond your expectation, and you will be so touched (whether the feeling is good or bad) and inspired by what you see. If you happen to be a thinker, you will have a deeper understanding about nature, society and human beings, their happiness, sadness, bitter and sweet…and that’s all what life is about.