Range of Vision

Welcome to the East/West World.
A world where sushi restaurants and McDonalds sit side-by-side in Japan, Hawaii, and America.
A world where Brad Pitt does Tibet, and Michelle Yeoh does James Bond.

We all have preconceptions about this new world.
Our preconceptions are shaped by television, movies, magazines, books, friends, relatives, strangers, myths, and legends.

Japanese are short, can't hold their alcohol, are always serious.  
California is full of beautiful women, tofu-eating mystics, and 'more fruits and nuts than a bowl of granola'. 
Chinese are this.
Mexicans are that. 
Fill in the blanks.

Imagine my surprise, when I traveled and found that none of what I was taught was true. No one (and no thing) is as good or as bad as you've been told.
If you live your life, and make your decisions, based on the 'facts' you get from traditional channels, you can expect to screw up consistently.

Range of Vision, A Theory:

A) You can only positively effect those things that you understand.
B) You can only understand those things that you've witnessed first-hand.

Meaning? I try to understand and positively impact those things in my 'range of vision'. And, I try to keep expanding that range.

'Wandering' is the best way to do this.  But not everyone gets the chance to physically wander as much as they would like (or need).

The web is a great tool for closing this gap. You can think of it as 'virtual wandering', except it's not virtual at all. There are a lot of real people and opinions out there.
I've used the web as a telescope (to bring things that are far away just a bit closer) and as a microscope (to get a better view of the little things right under my nose). The web has helped me plan my travels around Asia, and helped me keep a foot in America.
It has expanded my range of vision.

Hopefully, this site will help you do the same. I've lived in Asia now for five years, and plan to add writings, photos, and tools that might help you see some new things (or old things in a new way!).

So Wander. Ask. Seek.
And build your own Range of Vision.