Saturday, November 10, 2007

Show and Tell

A few days ago, one of the leaders in the CTM network came over for a meeting. We strayed heavily from our agenda and I showed him an article about his community that someone had sent me. He read it, felt that it was very accurate and asked if I had any photos of my family on the computer.

One thing led to another and I showed him photos from the last two years of my life. It never dawned on me until then how difficult it is to tell an accurate story with photos across cultural barriers. Think of the things that we take pictures of and how this might be interpreted by others. It forced me to think hard about the story that my photo album tells and how inaccurate (or maybe accurate) it might be perceived by another. Here are a few examples that required some serious explanation:

  • Backpacking with my dad and brother in Colorado: “You mean to tell me that you flew on a plane to a different state (country in many people's context) to walk for 4 days and stay in a tent when you have a nice home that you can stay in?”

  • A “decorated” car after our wedding: “People put paint on your car, fill it with balloons and tie cans to it...on your wedding day and you aren't supposed to get mad?”

  • Ugly Christmas sweater competition at work: “You go out and buy the ugliest sweater that you can in order to beat out your coworkers? Will you wear it again? Wouldn't you rather wear your other clothes...like the shirt that you have on-that one looks much better.”

  • Tubing behind the boat in the Puget Sound: “What is the boat for? Do you use it to get places? Why do some people ride on a tube? Is there not enough room for them in the boat?”

  • On the magnitude of wedding photos: “What are you going to do with thousands of wedding pictures? Do you print them? Then what? Why do you smash cake on Mandy's face when you are wearing nice clothes. Did she get mad at you?”

  • On the entire collection: “Are these all from you country?” Oceans, lakes, mountains, sand dunes, cities, flowers, fall leaves-not something that people are used to seeing every day.

  • My folks house in Michigan: “Where are the other houses? Do people pay to visit? Does anyone stay in the covered area in the front? (the porch)”

It was an interesting process. One that challenged me, made me laugh and made me somewhat embarrassed to know that many of the people that I interact with here would not be able to identify with many of the experiences that have made me who I am.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great examples of how our culture is so different from theirs. When you stop to think about it, we really do have some odd customs. =) Love the newsletter!