More and more and the Fukuyama Principal

So... we continue to experience the world of Portugal, its people and its spirit. We have encountered cross-cultural conflict from misunderstandings, experienced great times with great people and great cuisine. We are hard at work with the language training, the verbs are killin us! But is is going on, more and more experiences. We have been helping teach surfing, hoping to be a blessing to the lives of the students and fellow workers.

We are constantly finding out how different this world is from our own. Sometimes, it seems so close to ours, but living here destroys that notion. But difference is not a bad thing, it is just difference. We are learning to live in a different pace, to dance to a different beat, knowing we may never, probably will never, fully become like the locals, but we try to live simpatico, as much as is beneficial to them.

Francis Fukuyama, in his End of History discourse, talked of synthesis as the product of a thesis and antithesis colliding. As one ideology collides with another, it would produce a new idea (synthesis), which would collide with another (making it a thesis) and start the process over (until the end of history, democracy). Here, we see how the even more Western world collides with the Portuguese world, as the Portuguese world collided with the numerous cultures it had in its day of exploration glory.

Products of American culture, such as hip hop, food, cinema, etc. have integrated into the Portuguese lifestyle. However, out of this thesis/ antithesis dance is produced a new synthesis, a new product, still of Portuguese style. It has become theirs. The ways of old are still here, but new generations are allotted their own ways, their own culture. This, as we are so blessed to observe this amazing place, is on our minds.

No culture is completely concrete, they are all fluid. plasma like maybe. If you study culture, and expect to see a monolithic thing, you will be blind to the complexities of such a beautiful thing. It is, however, on of our great faults to look for the monolithic where there is complexity, beautifully at that.

Who we are here must be fluid, flexible, complex. To be a blessing, you may be quite simple in your actions, but as an individual, you share the complexity of the society that you are a product of. Even that, we are the product of a complex web of biology, society, and free will. Realize and celebrate the beauty of the creation that you are. Be thankful for it, live thankful for it.

We continue to labor in love, giving the hope that we we in the greatest of Hope Givers.

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.

-St. Francis