About the Book

Today, the world is small and interconnected. Cultural differences are impossible to avoid as are misunderstandings. Many are minor and cause amusement. Others inhibit communication, deny solutions when enemies negotiate and cause pain in our personal lives.

A Ticket to the Grand Show is a series of true stories that give glimpses into the cultural labyrinths around us. The stories take place in countries where I have lived and worked including China, Japan and Mexico. They are an eclectic and personal collection of some of my favourite places, anecdotes and experiences—experiences that range from humorous to tragic to dangerous. 

Each tale is part of a personal journey to identify cultural givens and to parse the logic I use to organise my world. Exceeding the boundaries of my own culture by understanding the other and hopefully by the other’s understanding of me is a necessary first step in finding solutions to stereotyping, bigotry, racism and ignorance. All is not gloom, however. Each story is a ticket to the grand show of human diversity, past and present, where the richness of culture is woven into the multi-hued fabric of people’s lives. In most cases an attempt has been made to avoid passing the encounters through my personal filter. In others, I have been shameless in inserting bias. Therefore, interpretation is mostly left to the reader. 

Attempting to see the reasons behind differences generates new ways of thinking and better empowers us to understand the world. The discoveries aren’t always delightful, but they help explain why we are sometimes hurt, angered or uncomfortable which, in turn, helps mitigate some of our fear of the foreign, the unknown and the different. The future depends on moving beyond our borders and penetrating the boundaries of our culture. Though the geography of cultures is complex, we each carry a map that shows the way to one of the great wonders of the world—the theatre of life’s experience—and playing there every day is the grand show of human diversity. My ticket includes transportation. The vehicles that will take me are patience, wonder, empathy and a sense of humour.

We must gaze past our own ethnicity but to do that we must use our ears rather than our eyes. To really accept the other, each of us must hear the other. Blame and condemnation fuel the fire. Responsibility and accountability help solve the problem. We must transcend our obsession with identity by adopting a new colour to replace black, brown, red, yellow and white. The name of our new colour—human.