Prelude

“Replace Judgement with Curiosity” ~ Lynn Nottage

         Once upon a time, a little girl gazed out the window in a bustling new city. Everyone looked different, spoke different languages, wore different clothes, and had beautiful jewelry dangling from their wrists and noses.  This girl took in all the commotion and chaos from the street below.  The girl savored all the smells of food that wafted up to her window, spices, and senses she had never known before.  The little girl could not take her eyes off it all; she was captivated by a new sensation that would infuse her soul with a need to travel, see, and understand; what is this “other”?, Why is there an “other?”

         The girl remained in India with her father, who worked there for three months. She visited many new places, met new people, ate new foods, and dwelt in a state of wonder and awe. The only thing that jarred the little girl’s heart was when her father, whom she adored, would become exasperated with this new world, and his frustration would boil over in some comment about the chaos, traffic or heat in this land. Because her father never spoke ill of anyone to her, his level of irritation with this world jarred her and made her take notice. It didn’t occur to the little girl that there was a wrong and a right way of doing things, a bad and a good way of being and that the clashing of those realities was paining her father. The little girl only saw “different” as a possibility that she had not fathomed before. All possibilities seemed equally relevant, opening up a new paradigm shift in this nine-year-old’s world.

         Fifteen years later, we find this girl again at an airport in Honolulu, saying goodbye to her friends and family and getting ready to embark upon a new adventure of her design. The roots of this adventure could be traced back to when, as a little girl, she stared out the window in India and was irrevocably changed. Her life from that moment forward had been about finding the ‘other’, trying to get to know the ‘other’, and wanting to merge with the ‘other’ and experience it. There had been more travels with her father to far-off places, and she had loved them all. At home, she sought out friends from different backgrounds and was always curious about their inner lives. As she prepared to board this plane, she said goodbye to her mother, her Palestinian-American friend, her Irish-Catholic friend, and her Indian ex-boyfriend. She kissed them all and thanked them for their love and friendship throughout the years. A new adventure was waiting. She turned and left.