Cultures’ attitudes towards life, death, destiny & community
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I learned a great deal about different attitudes towards life and death during the time I spent in remote areas of the Somali desert. I watched in bewilderment as tribesmen let their only source of water in that desert area be polluted with a seeming disregard for their own lives or the consequences: the inevitable, rapid destruction of the community. These new realizations regarding different cultures' varying attitudes towards life, death, destiny, community, responsibility, survival, and spirituality initially baffled, confused and, at times, upset and depressed me. Later on, they humbled me and irreversibly impacted me for the rest of my life. I have learned not to assume anything about other cultures and to always stay anthropologically open, deeply respectful and able to honor and approach cultural diversity with a sense of awe.
A community, enriched or
Destroyed with thoughts of others
Or maybe not at all...
A polluted well suddenly waterless,
not potable, incapable of sustaining life
Survival for a community
destroyed instantly thrown into the wind
These occurrences changed my
View of humankind and its
Responsibility to others
Made me cynical, despondent