On my trip to California I had a big awakening that there are things totally outside my experience and understanding. I learned about the protests against a wetland restoration. It was unfathomable to me that people were protesting something that I would have thought would have obvious support – especially in California! Finally my son-in-law explained it to me – it is a California thing –the fringe there are wacked out lefties – way over – and their thinking is to leave things the way they are??? Or some kind of logic that is known only to them, (Mark Gold said “NIMB” not in my backyard – but I couldn’t see it) Mark F. said the fringe people in California are not like the fringe people in, for example, the Midwest, where you might get a push back from the right – white supremacists, small government, no government, business and profit is supreme….. no tree huggers getting in the way of making money or telling others what to do for the sake of the environment. In California the mainstream is like the left here in the midwest — and the crazy fringe is a crazy “left” fringe.
It was a real awakening – I consider myself well read and worldly – I read three newspapers every day – including the NYTimes, — but I had to look at the fact that my world is insular in a way I was unaware – and there are worlds I do not fathom out there – THAT I DO NOT KNOW ABOUT. Literally, a bunch of stuff I do not know that I do not know. And I have been incredibly arrogant about this – my own hubris.
I can accept that I do not know what it would be like to, for example, live in Syria. During my world travels, I look at people and try to see how they are living, try to put myself in their shoes, and I pride myself in being able to do this to some extent. Tried to understand, for example, with the help of friend Daniel, how the Islamic Egyptians see the world – appreciating a culture that loudly, over a PA system, prays to God 5 times a day in melodious song. Impressed and open to that….
But now,at 69 – soon to be 70 (threescore and ten) –I am stunned with my ignorance. And I bow to it — and I need to admit that I do not know what is best for many people, and probably even myself.
In the lead up to my back surgery, I asked my guide Susan, from the other side, what to do – and her words were “let them take care of you” I have trusted that – found good people to help me and take care of me through this time.
Ah California…. Opening of my eyes –some of the very strangest people I have ever seen – shopping in the thrift store where I picked up a beautiful espresso cup and saucer…out the car window— a tree – that looked like something a child would draw – or Dr. Seuss – brown trunk, no leaves and a red flower on the end of each branch. Cully and I looked it up – “Coral Tree” 
I can almost feel a new childhood coming as I age – one in which nothing is taken for granted anymore: neither my understanding of the world, nor even the nature of the world itself.