By Amy Nielsen
We are on the eve of Election Day here in the U.S. Normally, I talk about the human side of getting a business off the ground. Today I want to talk about where your business fits into the greater good. This is not going to be a discussion of the U.S. election. It is a discussion about our role as global citizens.
By and large, you all, my readers, are military spouses. To say we move around a lot is sort of an understatement. On average we move every 2.8 years. If we spend 20 years in the military, that means we will live in approximately 7 different communities. Many of us have lived in many, many more. Be it on-post housing, out in town, or rural to the base – we tend to settle within a certain proximity to other active military families. These greater communities could all be within the same region of the United States say, Virginia, Texas, or Illinois; or they could be as far flung as Singapore, Germany, or Dubai. Regardless of whether you ever set foot OCONUS, you are part of something called a “third culture,” the active duty military culture. We are different from our civilian counterparts.
According to TCKWorld.com, the “official home of third culture kids”, “Adults who live in other cultures will broaden their perspectives, but their children will inevitably be a blend of cultures. They can be called Third Culture or Trans-Cultural Kids (TCKs). A TCK is an individual who, having spent a significant part of the developmental years in a culture other than that of their parents, develops a sense of relationship to both. These children of business executives, soldiers and sailors, diplomats, and missionaries who live abroad, become "culture-blended" persons who often contribute in unique and creative ways to society as a whole.”
I grew up as a third culture kid, as the daughter of a business executive running a multinational company with a global presence. I am first generation American with one parent a naturalized citizen. One parent served in the military, but due to injury, was unable to complete the dream of career service. I am intentionally keeping this gender neutral as it is not important which gender held which role. I lived in several different countries growing up and visited many, many more. We spoke several languages at home, often times in one sentence. We ate weird food and used strange soap.
As I opened my Facebook timeline this morning I was greeted by delightful pictures of several friends enjoying the first snow of the season in quaint alpine villages in Germany where they are stationed. Another friend’s kid was opening a huge care package from America, while in China where they are working as missionaries. Another friend posted photos of her lifelong dream, a hike to the top of Mt Fuji in Japan where she is studying abroad during her Master’s studies. I have close friends in 29 of 52 states many who I chat with daily. The vast majority of us have children and they move right along with us.
As we travel in the world, as we live wholly within another culture, we cannot help but develop a deep understanding of that culture. It becomes part of us, quite literally on a cellular and vibrational level as we eat the food, breathe the air and sing the songs of that new culture. In some cases this engenders a lifelong love of place and yearning to return to that era. Others create such an impression as to impair even the slightest thought of that place with a smear of darkness deeper than the Marietta Trench. Some just are a place we love to hate.
In each case we are touched by a different sensibility. We are gifted with the ability to see the world differently. We gain new perspective that cannot come from reading or tv alone. Not even Disney can make crepes like those at the little place next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Hopefully many of those memories are of magical places and wonderful times shared with loving community. If not perhaps there is a silver lining or steadfast buddy who became closer through the trial. Most of all, those places and times are about connections. When sharing anything, whether a glorious joy or glorious mess, there is connection to be found. Connection within family, within community, within self.
Those connections allow us to relate to the world with a great compassion and grace. We carry with us stories of other places and spaces that give us the ability to reach within ourselves and hear the larger story of a new spot on the journey. We can see the community from a shifted perspective from those entrenched within it. We can help to ease change with grace and repeated practice of creating community out of similarities rather than differences.
So as we go forward in our business endeavors, try to create community out of similarities, especially when differences seem to well outweigh them. Remember those times where you were welcomed as the different one. How were you welcomed, what made it possible for you to find connection? How deep did you have to dig; within yourself and within the connection you were bridging?
