“You can’t see the forest for the trees” is somewhat cliché and perhaps, even, an overused metaphor. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I can’t think of a better metaphor to describe what I want to share with this blog entry. Besides, I am really only original in the kitchen.
Several months ago my wife had a great idea--come the first of the year escape the cold of DC for two weeks and go visit her brother in the mild climate of Guatemala. So that is exactly what we did. The trip was fantastic and culminated with us taking her brother out to dinner for his birthday on our last night in Guatemala. I am not one that aspires to live vicariously through the lives of others so I will spare you further details of the trip…at least for now. Perhaps there are those out there that do like to live life vicariously at times and I am guessing that sometime in the future there may be an entry or two that will allow for some vicarious living. This future entry will also give you the opportunity to leave a comment about how I am a hypocrite in this respect. Right now though, I would like to share a personal epiphany that I experienced on our Guatemalan adventure.
As the first decade of the twenty first century was coming to a close, my wife and I were gaining excitement about our upcoming trip--excitement that we shared with friends and family. While my wife had a positive experience sharing with her friends about going to Guatemala, I had a pretty negative one. Over and over I heard horror stories of robberies and on two occasions of rape and dare I say terrorist attacks as well. Needless to say, this put me on edge and on guard as we left for our trip. And sadly, it gave me a negative view of the people of Guatemala before I even set foot on Central American soil.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the stories I heard before our trip did not have merit. However, what is sad, not just sad, but in all honestly really wrong, is that I let the actions of a few determine my overall view of the people in Guatemala. That is, I let a few trees block my view of the beautiful forest! If the people of Guatemala were not so friendly, trusting, courteous, considerate and genuine I am very doubtful I would have been able to make this observation at all. Thankfully, the warmth I felt coming from nearly everyone I met in Guatemala was in stark contrast with the so-called warnings I’d received from friends and family before leaving, and it led me to realize that I had let a few people wrongly influence my thinking about the population of an entire country.
Once I realized this I started thinking of other areas where I can’t see the forest for the trees. My list is longer than I care to share, but I will share two that I believe most white Americans share with me.
First, I am suspicious of most Middle Eastern people I see. Did you know that Muslim terrorist attacks on the US rank next to last for extremist groups just ahead of communist ones? Link
I call myself a Christian. There is no difference between the Muslim example and someone calling me a terrorist by associating me with Terry Jones and his Dove World Outreach Center. Instead of being suspicious of people from the Middle East I need to start accepting them and relating to them on a personal level, rather than relating to them based what I perceive to be their religious beliefs.
I call myself a Christian. There is no difference between the Muslim example and someone calling me a terrorist by associating me with Terry Jones and his Dove World Outreach Center. Instead of being suspicious of people from the Middle East I need to start accepting them and relating to them on a personal level, rather than relating to them based what I perceive to be their religious beliefs.
Second, we hear over and over in our society about the importance of first impressions. In light of my Guatemalan epiphany I believe first impressions are incredibly overrated. A first impression is merely a tree blocking your view of the forest. We tell ourselves we can know a person or even worse what type of person they are by what clothes they wear, how they walk, what they do for a living, what kind of facial expression or God forbid facial piercing they have at a given moment. Not seeing the forest for the trees takes much less effort than getting to know the forest. That is, making an assumption about someone with one or two pieces of data is easier than taking the time to get to know them. Far too often we take this easy way out--far too often I have taken this way out. I am ready to start seeing the entire forest! Are you?
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