I'll admit it. I rode my wife's pink bike this past Saturday.
I wanted to go for a bike ride and the only bike that we own is my wife's pink colored 10 speed bike that she had in high-school.
The color and over all quality of the bike still did not hinder me from going on my bike ride so off I went.
As I was riding along I noticed that I received some 'shocked' and 'surprised' reactions from people. Among those that gave me the 'shocked' and 'surprised' reaction were:
1. People who were driving by
2. A pair of bikers who actually had legitimate modern bikes designed for long distance biking
3. Amish people
A thought soon hit me as I was riding. Most of the time, as I am driving by the Amish people in my community I see and perceive their modes of transportation and style of living to be different, unique, and in some instances weird. Here there was the perfect role reversal as I was the one that was being perceived as being weird!
You see, we normally think that whatever is different than us is automatically weird and this is generally not the case!
As humans we compartmentalize information. We struggle with new information that does not fit neatly into one of our compartmentalized boxes and we therefore become shocked and surprised. Once we learn the motive and rationale behind that new information we then store it into a new compartmentalized box within our brain that becomes part of our "norms."
This is the value of culture. Culture allows us to understand behavior and fit it with perceived proper living standards.
Remember, our ways of thinking are probably weird to the Amish!
In many instances, perceived cultural differences are not right or wrong.....they are just that, different. If we want to reach those segmented people with the gospel we must work hard to understand their line thinking.
Let's be honest: there is nothing truly wrong with riding a pink bike, right?!? ;)
This is not a picture of me...just one to help your imagination. :)
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