Right now, my stomach is creaking like a ship. Unfortunately, the resulting smells do not bear any resemblance to a warm, gentle sea breeze.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Opening Doors
Once upon a time last summer, I opened a lot of car doors for Esther while we were in Northern Ireland. She thought it to be very chivalrous until I explained that since her mother's car didn't have power locks, it just made sense for me to use the key to unlock it and since I was doing that I might as well open it. Luckily for me, she still pretended it was chivalry. I did warn her though that if she wanted me to continue being chivalrous, then she should conspire to make sure we never get a car with power locks. Most of this is an aside though, my main point is that I opened doors.
It is probably about that you are thinking to yourself, Phil is going no where fast, yet again but I promise you that I really do have a plan this time! You see, one of the things that I find joy and beauty in while I'm in Bangladesh is Esther. Not just because she is awesome, which she most definitely is, but because she opens doors for me. You see, she breaks down so many of the cultural barriers that exist for me here. As a single male, it is inappropriate for me to relate to a large swath of people here and another large portion of people have a hard time relating to me. Most men my age in Bangladesh are married with children, married and thinking about children, or soon to be married. Before I met Esther, I was in none of those groups which just made normal relationships difficult as I just couldn't fit the culture in a natural way. Now that Esther and I are engaged, everyone at work treats her as if she is already my wife and the doors have been flung wide open. The staff relate to me in a whole new way and I thoroughly enjoy it. It is nice to be moving into to circles after 3 years of partial isolation to them. It's even comforting if I do say so myself. It just feels good to have doors open for you even if there isn't any chivalry involved.
It is probably about that you are thinking to yourself, Phil is going no where fast, yet again but I promise you that I really do have a plan this time! You see, one of the things that I find joy and beauty in while I'm in Bangladesh is Esther. Not just because she is awesome, which she most definitely is, but because she opens doors for me. You see, she breaks down so many of the cultural barriers that exist for me here. As a single male, it is inappropriate for me to relate to a large swath of people here and another large portion of people have a hard time relating to me. Most men my age in Bangladesh are married with children, married and thinking about children, or soon to be married. Before I met Esther, I was in none of those groups which just made normal relationships difficult as I just couldn't fit the culture in a natural way. Now that Esther and I are engaged, everyone at work treats her as if she is already my wife and the doors have been flung wide open. The staff relate to me in a whole new way and I thoroughly enjoy it. It is nice to be moving into to circles after 3 years of partial isolation to them. It's even comforting if I do say so myself. It just feels good to have doors open for you even if there isn't any chivalry involved.
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