Aurelius: Book Seven – Entry 61
“Living is more like wrestling than dancing; you have to stay on guard; ready and unruffled, while blows are being rained down on you, sometimes from unexpected quarters.”
No kidding! What an amazing sentiment – especially poignant for a PCV! We are more or less isolated, surrounded on all sides by foreign culture, tradition, food, sights, smells, tastes, language…constantly balancing, taking hits, blocking, deflecting, redirecting and adapting.
We use the experiential learning cycle in all of our curricula and community development programs. To me the process seems like intuitive adaptation – that is nature-guided – experiential learning. You are introduced to a topic, learn about it, internalize it, relate it, test it, receive feedback, and revise and edit. Pretty crazy right… It’s innate.
Still, often times we as PCVs steel ourselves for the cultural differences and changes, but are blindsided from unexpected quarters – fellow volunteers, news from home – the smallest of minor differences catch us unawares.
We have to stay on our guard, ready, recovered, and prepared to face the next experience –
Just a quick thought there hah.
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