The Gifts of Culture and Friendship

"What happened in that meeting?"

• Richard Porcelli
  

Giving and Receiving the Gifts of Culture and Friendship

I once worked in an office where people came from many countries. It made life so fresh and interesting! You can imagine the wonderful lessons I learned. We were from the four corners of the earth, The Sudan, Philippines, Pakistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the United States all working together for a common cause.

There was also a lot of cause for miscommunication and misunderstanding. We all used English as our common tongue yet, we were from differing cultural and religious backgrounds. This all combined to make our interactions very interesting from time to time.

On one occasion our largest Client came over from the United States to spend some time working with us. So, in honor of his visit everyone worked hard to speak their very best English in all of our meetings. Still I'll never forget walking out of one particular meeting and having him pull me aside.

"What happened in that meeting?" said he.

I looked back at him with a confused look on my face saying, "Richard, the meeting was in English."

"That was English?" he replied.

All I could do at that point was to laugh boisterously. He then began to laugh as well. Those were times when I couldn't make many assumptions and I learned a lot.

I learned lots of lessons about accepting the way other people approach life and do things, while working in that office filled with wonderful people who talked and thought so differently than I did. So lately, when I've run in to a few people that have been so demanding, so commanding, about making sure that others see and do things in a way that matches their view of the world I've found myself beginning to bristle from their demeanor. When this happens, I've had to take a moment to relax and travel in my mind back to the Middle East and those days in a world of difference.

I see myself at my friend Jungee's birthday party thinking it was all wrong. Jungee had purchased his own birthday cake to share it with us, his friends. I had come not knowing it was a birthday party and I felt embarrassed that Jungee had purchased his own cake. I mentioned my feelings to another friend at the party and he was kind enough to teach me, to shift from my view to that of my friend.

"In our culture a person always provides his own birthday cake. It shows he has taken responsibility for his own life and he chooses to share it with his friends and family." He taught.

What a gift it is to receive knowledge and friendship from peoples of many nations, religions and cultures. These are gifts we can all receive and give at the same time. I hope you will receive these gifts from me as I receive them from you.