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RollingStone
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 138
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 Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 1:38 am Post subject: |
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| spiral78 wrote: |
| I think a high tolerance of ambiguity may be one of the most important distinctions between those who leave their home countries and those who stick around and do whatever they can to make it work, even when it's tough. |
Very well said! Sums everything succinctly.
Of course, you are distinguishing those who desire (to go abroad) but do not, rather than simply those that do not go abroad and do not wish to? I think those that ask the type of question - what should I do - are actually questioning their tolerance for ambiguity. As opposed to staying local and doing what the locals tend to do and hoping things turn out.
Very interesting discussion. |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:02 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I think those that ask the type of question - what should I do - are actually questioning their tolerance for ambiguity. |
How can anyone decide what to do? Too many options! |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:09 am Post subject: |
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I think those that ask the type of question - what should I do - are actually questioning their tolerance for ambiguity. As opposed to staying local and doing what the locals tend to do and hoping things turn out.
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Well I think that staying local and believing that one will just punch the clock for the next 20 years is a mirage. Living in my hometown or in Taiwan, I still don't know what will happen tomorrow. |
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RollingStone
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:13 am Post subject: |
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Lets ask this: what is wrong with romance? Was is wrong with looking at something and finding it special, finding it mysterious, though millions walk past it every day without a second look? Yes, you will attract raised eyebrows. You will be absurd to them. But we all need that imagination. The world without imagination is a very harsh and painful place. I think many drug themselves with routine, entertainment, and a scramble to achieve some level of conspicuous display of success - that is, do what is expected of them.
It takes a high tolerance for ambiguity to follow your interests or desire or dream or romance or mystery, no matter where you are. Or, in a word, courage.
Unless youre running from an arrest warrant  |
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jdl
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 632
Location: cyberspace
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:25 am Post subject: |
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It all looks different from a distance; the grass greener, the water sweeter, the people friendlier, the lifestyle more relaxed or more exotic or more affluent. All that we do not see in our own setting. The search has driven man/womankind to seek out new adventures, new landscapes and new lives.
Every field of grass upon examination has its weeds...in fact the grass may be the weed on occasion. I guess we need to learn to appreciate the weeds on both sides of the fence.
As a friend of mine told me, "I do love to travel and work about. The corporate scene was just not me. But, you know, we all need a place to die and I guess that is home." |
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RollingStone
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:34 am Post subject: |
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| JZer wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I think those that ask the type of question - what should I do - are actually questioning their tolerance for ambiguity. |
How can anyone decide what to do? Too many options! |
Well, I think the quote refers to are those who ask others, say on this board, should I `do` tesl, should I go abroad? No one can answer that for anyone of course. No one knows your level of tolerance.
Of course, there are many who have no desire to leave their hometown. Perhaps it isnt lack of tolerance or courage but lack of imagination, or simple lack of desire. Nothing wrong with staying put. No, this question applies to anyone who has something tugging at them, chewing at them, that wont let them go, but means doing something not usual. Could be anything. Doesnt matter what it is. But it means stepping outside the norm and what people expect (oh, and you will hear what the norm is from others). I have always been attracted to that road, because it always seems like the one most interesting, where you are living a different life from anyone you know. Where you dont know what will happen. Yes, certainly a high tolerance for ambiguity is required for that.
At the end you only have evidence of being truly alive by how well you followed your desires, did what you wanted to do when you had the choice. When it came down basically all you had to do was decide and put yourself in motion, what did you do, and why? Circumstance ebbs and flows for all of us. But when you had the choice, what did you do, and why? And thats who you are. And this applies not just to big decisions, but daily decisions, especially the seemingly trivial decisions. Because reality is nothing but a series of moments, opportunities, and therein decisions, passing by like grains of sand. What you do with them, when you have the choice, is who you are. |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:47 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| As a friend of mine told me, "I do love to travel and work about. The corporate scene was just not me. But, you know, we all need a place to die and I guess that is home." |
Of course that leads to the question, what is home? Is it where you were born or where you live your dreams? Or are some people home no matter where they go? |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:50 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Well, I think the quote refers to are those who ask others, say on this board, should I `do` tesl, should I go abroad? No one can answer that for anyone of course. No one knows your level of tolerance. |
RollingStone, I was not trying to explain that quote. I was saying that for me there are too many interesting things out there to do. |
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RollingStone
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:58 am Post subject: |
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| jdl wrote: |
It all looks different from a distance; the grass greener, the water sweeter, the people friendlier, the lifestyle more relaxed or more exotic or more affluent. All that we do not see in our own setting. The search has driven man/womankind to seek out new adventures, new landscapes and new lives.
Every field of grass upon examination has its weeds...in fact the grass may be the weed on occasion. I guess we need to learn to appreciate the weeds on both sides of the fence.
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I would say that over the vast majority of history humans relocated due to severe necessity - to flee. I think only the very relative few have done so for other reasons.
Weeds are everywhere and are all the more reason for romance. If one can learn to appreciate pollution and stress and all the other problems of modern societies then perhaps they can learn to appreciate the weeds. Why not build for oneself that place of edification, which begins with a mindset, that doesnt mindlessly follow the crowd, that is able to discover the grass among the weeds? |
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jdl
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 632
Location: cyberspace
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 3:03 am Post subject: |
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My friend did not know and said he was not close enough to death for that to be an imperative. He was just thinking about it at this time knowing he would have to define 'home' soon enough.
I guess he was anticiapating a decsion he would have to, or want to make in the future; setting the framework for his consideration of his mortality, life's decisions, reckoning....all that.
I guess he had made his decisions about greener pasturesand was very successfully navigating and persuing his passion for life daily as suggested by Rollingstone. He did not concern himself so much about his response or measuring to a norm but more with what he could live with and whether his decsions were taking him where he wanted to go. Of course some of us thought he was just a bit too cerebral about it all, butwe all knew we were just postponing our own thinking. We all had beers on it. |
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RollingStone
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| JZer wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Well, I think the quote refers to are those who ask others, say on this board, should I `do` tesl, should I go abroad? No one can answer that for anyone of course. No one knows your level of tolerance. |
RollingStone, I was not trying to explain that quote. I was saying that for me there are too many interesting things out there to do. |
I understand what youre saying. But one can never have too many interesting things to do!  Because all you need is one interesting thing to do. If it is interesting, then the other maybe interesting things may not be so necessary. It is the difference between looking at the occupation as a journey or destination. If it is the latter, then yes, of course, you want to be there and be there and there and there, all at the same time. IN that way they all look the same. But if you understand and value the process - the journey - then you just need to pick one road, and when you start journeying down that, not merely to get to a destination, then you realize you are walking ALL roads. For then you walk the road of experience. |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 11:16 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Because all you need is one interesting thing to do. If it is interesting, then the other maybe interesting things may not be so necessary. |
Really. Maybe I am the odd one. Is there anyone out there with just one interest and no other side interest to distract you? |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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A lot of you are being really derogatory about weeds.
In my experience, weed is what some backpacking EFL teachers are looking for.
Justin
PS- If the grass looks a lot greener, there's either more rain or more bull*beep*. Or both. |
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jdl
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 632
Location: cyberspace
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| Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Indeed.....dandelion wine and wild oats...do we ever get enough? |
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voltaire
Joined: 03 Dec 2006
Posts: 179
Location: 'The secret of being boring is to say everything.'
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| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:15 am Post subject: |
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Off the topic a bit here, but as no one has replied to this thread for two months, I guess it's all right.
I have heard that the origin of the term gringo(s) -The slightly derogatory Mexican term for Norteamericanos- comes from Mexicans hearing Texas cowboys sing 'How Green Grow The Lilacs'.
We could look it up, but what does it matter really? It's funny!
Also funny is this old Tex-Mex joke:
One wintry night in west Texas, a Texan and a Mexican happen to wander outside to the back wall of a saloon. They are both peeing. Always the friendly conversationalist, the Texan remarks, "Pretty chilly!"
To which the Mexican replies, "Mucho gracias senor!"  |
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