Dropped into a foreign land full of promise and hope. We land with a slight thud, but all seems well. The terrain seems familiar enough. Stepping upon the grass and finding it green like where we came from, it seems the same. We light a fire and place our parachutes upon it, after all we won't be needing them anymore. They blaze away, ashes rising til the final fibres are consumed.
There is no going back.
So we look down the path that is to be the next part of our journey. We know that this is a foreign land, but it looks pretty much the same, so we make some assumptions. The grass is green so it must grow the same as the grass back home. We meet the natives which we have come to join with. They seem happy and excited that we have come. They look the same as us, sort of. They speak the same language as the natives back home, so we make some assumptions. If they use the same words as we do they must be saying the same thing. So we join the natives on the path, side by side toward some common destination. We work at gathering wood for the fire and graciously help each other hauling water. We take care of all the obvious needs that we have in common along the way. As we continue down the path, sharing similiar tasks we start to believe that we are the same. Because we seem the same and are traveling a common path we make some assumptions. We must be heading toward the same destination. It is unspoken and undefined but it must be the same, so we move forward. Then something happens along the path. Another joins the journey. We welcome this new one as we help in the lighting of a fire to consume another parachute. We join together on the path toward the unspoken common destination. This new foreigner speaks the same language as we do, and as the natives do. Maybe a tiny accent but nothing that should hinder communication, so we carry on. The size of the path hasn't changed so we politely take turns in who will lead, who will follow, who will carry water.
Are you good at carrying water?
We continue on but somehow the journey has become more labored. As we walk, the path seems harder. Are we going uphill? The natives, the new foreigner, my partner and I forge ahead. We consult one another about the new incline. The consensus seems the same as we use words to communicate what we understand to be true. The words are the same from the foreigner, the natives, and us. The foreigner smiles, the natives smile, we smile. So my partner and I make some assumptions. We are all smiling, we must all be happy.
never assume.
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