Friday Forward - Open Arms (#543)

What thousands of visiting soccer fans are reminding us about the difference between a country and its government.

On the night of June 14, a bagpipe playing, kilt-wearing parade of roughly five thousand Scottish soccer fans marched through Boston. Scotland had just won its first World Cup match in nearly thirty years, and they were celebrating with special Scotland themed Red Sox game at the legendary Fenway Park. The Red Sox printed special jerseys, taught the organist Scottish songs, and put a kilt on the mascot.

Boston was hardly prepared for the celebration the Scots brought. By the end of the week the Scottish fans, dubbed the Tartan Army, had taken over the bars, drained the city’s kegs, and brought Fenway more joy than it’s seen all year. The Boston locals even shed their typical reserve and fully embraced their enjoyably rambunctious visitors.

What I found most interesting was many of these Scottish visitors acknowledged they were nervous about their trip to the US. Some admitted they nearly didn’t come at all.

They have been absorbing the warnings on social media about our political climate and ICE presence and half-expected hostility at the airport. Instead, they were met with hospitality and kindness. As one Scottish fan put it in a viral video: “The America that we are experiencing right now is the America we were promised growing up.”

This experience wasn’t unique to Boston, or to the Scots. In Lawrence, Kansas, more than five hundred people came to the airport to welcome the Algerian national team. The local high school band learned Algeria’s anthem and played it on the tarmac.

Across the country, visitors have been posting wide-eyed videos of the most ordinary American things: free refills, ice in their sodas, driving a pickup truck, the size of a Walmart, the existence of Buc-ee’s. They are experiencing a warm-hearted cultural exchange.

All of these people are discovering the oldest lesson of travel: a country is not its government, and people are more than their politics.

The news doesn’t make money showing you that. Fear and outrage sell; a stranger giving good directions, or offering a place to sleep, does not. Too often our view of places outside our comfort zone is distorted by sensationalized, negative headlines, broadcast on a loop. We end up afraid of entire countries we have never set foot in, nervous around people we have never met, and less willing to make the connections that make life worth it.

It’s worth remembering that most countries’ leaders today were either elected by a little more than half the population or installed by a regime the people never voted for at all. Yet we routinely act as if a country’s people uniformly support its policies and leaders. We do this selectively, judging some people more harshly than others without even realizing it.

None of this is to say governments don’t matter or policies don’t carry real costs. They do. But the experience of visiting a country is much more about people than it is about policy. This is why I keep coming back to travel as one of the best investments a person can make. You see things in a new light, meet new people, encounter perspectives you wouldn’t have found at home, and even bring some joy to the locals.

The Scots have left Boston, but the lesson from their visit endures. They arrived expecting the country they had seen on a screen and found the one they had long hoped to see. For one summer, the world showed up at our door with a bit of fear and left with a warm feeling toward our people and culture.

It’s a lesson worth remembering the next time we’re sure we already know a place we’ve never really seen.

Quote of the Week

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

Have a Great Weekend!

-Bob

New from Premium

• How To Eliminate Your Pointless Meetings

• A Different Way To Think About Your Best Employees