LIFE INSIDE
“I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” – Lillian Smith
At some point in our life, each of us has felt like an outsider, a stranger who didn't belong.
On a grueling thirteen hour train ride across the island of Java, a girl turned to me and said “Isn’t it funny?! It looks like you're the only bule on the whole train.” That day I learned the meaning of the Indonesian word for white foreigner. I had felt like a complete outsider for weeks, but at that moment a local Javanese girl broke the ice, and I made a new friend.
My meanderings through Southeast Asia and India have been marked by a curiosity to understand cultures that are so different than my own, a desire to connect with the locals, to be invited into their lives and homes and gain insight into their way of being. Finding myself in a place with absolutely no point of reference, where everything was so completely foreign and unfathomable allowed my mind to abandon its familiar perspective and to consider how the world might look through another person's eyes.
The Luddite in me was intrigued by the quiet simplicity of village life steeped in ancient traditions, as if frozen in time. A part of me envied this life devoid of consumerism, advertising, commercials. A life without screens to stare at, emails to reply to, addictive social media. We've made such huge strides in technological advancement, but I often wonder how that has translated into tangible improvement for our inner life, our well-being or capacity for joy. What would life be like without the noise we create to distract us from ourselves?
It is a strange experience to witness life in these isolated, remote villages in this particular moment in history. As a result of decades of colonialism and the influence of the West, the wealth of cultural traditions and the ancient customs that have been a way of life for thousands of years are changing, morphing, and in urban places nearly disappearing in the name of modernity and progress. East and West clash and the result is both sad and simultaneously bizarre and humorous.
What I brought back with me in tangible form are these images here, seeds thrown into the soil of memory, glimpses into the mystery of life on the inside.