A minority again

Ever been a minority on a crowd? I don’t mean, “I like that kind of music and no one else does”. I mean minority in the racial sense.

Since I was born with white skin and euro-features, I am part of the majority in the USA. This is swiftly changing, as other racial groups are having more babies than euro-types.

I never knew what it was like to stand out in a crowd until we moved to Africa. It’s a strange feeling to have people look at you and think, “He’s different.”

I just returned from about a week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – a big modern city of about 7.2 million people (including the surrounding areas). The Malay are the majority, with about 60% of the population. Chinese are roughly 30%. East Indians come in at approximately 10%. And caucasians are maybe 1% or less.

I found it healthy to experience a little prejudice – in small doses. It helped me realize that I’m small.

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More on summer

Since we live in Colorado, it is more or less mandatory that we go camping and/or backpacking each summer.

Hardship, you mutter.

Well, yes, it’s true that I relish leaving our neck of suburbia to head for the hills. But I also appreciate sleeping in a normal bed.

Anyhow, my sons and I went for an overnight near Silver Plume. I tried to find a good backpacking book for Colorado, which you might think would be easy to find. No. So I punted. We went to the Georgetown tourist info booth and got some simple maps for the nearby mountains. We headed left – and up – from Silver Plume. Ben and I camped at the nearest flat spot (an old trail).

Jay and his buddy Nathan did a survival night – no tent, no sleeping bag. Thankfully, no rain either. I was proud of them – but I’ll leave it at the fact that they melted their two ponchos and ate a very large breakfast with Ben and I late the next morning.

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Let’s focus

ft-wayne-air-museumSo I went on a business trip last week. My itinerary included three airports. The Fort Wayne airport had a museum devoted to airplanes and flying. It was small, but I enjoyed my visit.

My only critical comment was that there was absolutely no focus. As you can tell from these photos, the display ranged from Leonardo da Vinci and Lego fighter jets to a large section on Art Smith, a local pioneer in the realm of flying.

Takeaway: How can you bring focus to what you are doing? (And many may point that finger at me – how can I bring focus to this blog? I have thought about that – but I enjoy being able to cover a wide range of topics. I’m seriously pondering a separate site where I do focus more. This site will most likely remain my sandbox to play in.)

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Texas kitsch

truckstop-2funSo we went to Texas last week for our kids’ spring break. As we do every time (except one – for my mom’s memorial service), we make the trek via minivan. We have driven enough times that it’s not hard. The kids actually enjoy it. And I love the peaceful time behind the wheel while everyone’s asleep.

As with any journey, there must be stops for tending to those human needs. Truck stops are our pause of choice, as they usually have pretty clean restrooms. And I always enjoy seeing what trinkets they have – that I won’t buy.

Finally, those of you eagle eyes out there may have noticed that one of the fake photos in the western skull picture frames is upside down. (Ten points!)

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