Last weekend, when we had the international student group in the 'house, double-digit nationalities theoretically colliding and merging and bridging gaps while building future networks, I was thinking... didn't they all seem like they were from the same neighborhood?
Just about every one of them spoke English without a trace of an outside-suburbia accent. Aside from the natural appearances, there was nothing about their manners of dress, behavior, appetites or interests in Rio notably distinguishing any of them. I would bet you $100 right now that every member of that group comes from a decently-off, internet-connected, quality-educated childhood. Not that there's anything wrong with that... but not that there's anything culturally diverse about it, either.
If The Traveler were a comic book character, the name of his arch-rival would be, of course, Globalization. It would be a good comic book, actually, because Globalization does a lot of long-term good for a lot of people, and its only an accidental side effect that has him wreaking havoc on our hero's favorite hobby.
My point, I guess, is that the interchange between, for example, the Indian and the Russian and the Colombian and the Chinese- which you would think would be pretty incredible- was far less interesting and colorful then, say, between Suka- a Brazilian Rasta-wanderer-one-man-band from downtown Belem, and Priscilla- a Brazilian beautician-mother-wife-party-planner-beach-and-party-scene-expert from outside of Belem. It just seems like Suka and P have more differences between them to note.
So, two things:
1. When I boast of the variety of passports in the 'house at any given time, you gotta understand that, unfortunately, that does not guarantee a variety of views, a variety of meals being prepared in the kitchen, a variety of styles or interests or methods or even accents, let alone languages. Maybe this is a part of why YOU have to go THERE instead of waiting for THERE to come to YOU: the ones who can afford to travel are not necessarily the ones you want to interact with. The "upper crust" is not the richest part of the pudding, am I right?
2. The other great rival to our hero The Traveler is his woebegone half-brother, Higher Eddie. Eddie chose a different route, pursuing classroom, school-book goals. In doing so he gained a vast amount of theoretical logistical skill while inadvertantly sacrificing the only time he would have in his life to construct his identity out of the lessons of practical experience. And one day he found himself really articulate, really clever, and really, as they say here in Rio, "without salt". And when he spent a weekend at Piratas, none of the long-termers could figure out where Eddie was actually from. Some suburb somewhere.
