I've caught up with you, now.

I find this an interesting muse in that I find myself understanding why your experiences have given you these interpretations of life.

I'm tempted to write out one of these in parallel, as my experiences have given me a likewise broader interpretation on life. I'd ask your permission as I don't want to distract from your work, and feel free to tell me to hold off.

One point I will throw out there though. It appears a huge influence on us both is the experience of the expat. Nothing opens the frame of reference in how one looks at life and humanity more definitively than the actual experience of living in lands different from one's origin long-term.

What one absorbs as one makes the effort to "fit" is one factor. Maybe more mind expanding is that look at where you had come from now seen from the outside looking in. Suddenly the entire "motherland" shroud is stripped away a bit, you see your origins (nation and culture) far more pragmatically perhaps, and your own identity gets a re-adjustment from a purely nationalistic view to a broader one. It is a seminal change in self and dam hard to explain, but those who have had the experience quietly nod knowingly to each other when we meet.

Some folks might say war is a more definitive frame-of-reference changer but for me (having experienced a bit of that too) it is the expat experience. I will always look at things with a more pragmatic and arguably balanced eye.