Culture Shock Part Two

Culture shock is a sort of vaguely defined term. It’s not really a condition in and of itself. It’s really more the confluence of various other conditions, which are caused by massive upheaval in life.  We are products of our environments. We perhaps take for granted each day the luxury of “identity” which is afforded to us through being integrated in a society, a family, and a job.

People talk about being homesick, lonely, depressed as symptoms of culture shock…comparing your new country to your old one in a negative light. These descriptions all fall short. Although “to each his own” rings true for this condition, it is not particularly about being homesick or lonely or “in over your head”. The feeling I have been experiencing is more fundamental. It is a nervousness in the center of my being…a nervousness which knows far better why it has cause to be nervous than I do.

“I” is not about to be “I” anymore. And “I” does not know what it will become. This is the cause of said nervousness. My ego fought hard, sending out waves of anger, excitement, irritability and self-righteous indignation in a last ditch effort to win the battle for control. But as the Tao Teh Ching says, “a whirlwind does not last even a whole day”, and “to be overgrown is to hasten decay…this is against the Tao…and whatever is against the Tao will soon cease to be”.

Such is the behavior of my ego, asserting form on the formless and watching it dissipate. To be cliché, it is like dust in the wind. To be debauch, it is like pissing into the ocean. Now I am regaining my routine of exercise and sleep. I am starting to calm down and I am starting to notice things…or rather I should say I am starting to BE noticed. I don’t know why that is a more appropriate way to say it. I feel as though Taiwan is now acting on me rather than me on it.  Now, I can say Taiwan is this way or Taiwan is that way. But I really no longer have any other option but to find out.

The picture is unrelated, I just thought is was cool.