From a Distance

I'm back. I made it home safely, although there were several slippery moments driving from XNA. I seriously thought I would hydroplane on at least 4 different occasions! But, luckily I made it home safely. My parents were about 4 hours behind me, so they should be getting home this evening as well.
The trip home wasn't that eventful except for the two people that were sitting behind me on the plane. They were from London and were coming here for business. Anyway, I got a kick out of listening to the guy explain to the lady that was with him about marriage, traveling, and then our area. The explanations about what the area I call home were the best though! She evidently was originally from Nigeria, however from what I could tell, she calls London home these days. Anyway, he asked her what she wanted for dinner and she told him she wanted something very American. Well, he tells her that they need to eat BBQ and fried chicken. He tells her he will take her to KFC because it will be really American and she'll enjoy it while she eats it, but won't want it ever again! As I sat there and continued to listen to him describe the Ozarks to her, I couldn't help but realize how much he knew about this area. He had evidently done his homework and maybe he has visited before. I looked out the window as he showed her a chicken house and described it to her. He told her about the lakes and showed her how the leaves were changing. As he continued, I knew that he knew more about where I lived than I did!
Ok, you know me--I got to thinking. There are times we can learn something about ourselves from others. At times, we think we know ourselves better than anyone. We are taught that we are our own experts. But his descriptions of the Ozarks showed me that sometimes an outside opinion is refreshing. There are times we can be enlightened by another person's perspective. Sometimes their views and perception are so different than anything we could have seen from our own view. It's not that they are necessarily right, (hey, the guy thinks we are all a bunch of rednecks that would shoot anyone that stepped on our property!) but it at least challenges us to learn more about ourselves!
Well, it's Desperate Housewife time...gotta go!