Different Realities Exist Every Day

Over the past six hour, we drove from the winding country roads through small Midwestern towns-some with populations of barely 1,100 people into the heart of downtown Chicago. It wasn’t just a change of scenery. It was a change in reality.

For miles we passed cornfields, barns, grain bins, and farmhouses. When we were in Iowa, the conversations centered around the upcoming harvest. Families were preparing to freeze sweet corn that would feed multiple families through the winter. Community gatherings might include corn shucking, horseback riding, tarot shooting, county fairs or simply spending evenings on the porch watching the fireflies.

Then, mile by mile, the landscape changed. The roads widened, traffic increased and the buildings grew taller. Eventually we entered a City where millions of people share a completely different way of living.

Many residents rely on public transportation instead of driving everywhere. Living spaces are smaller, families seem to be smaller in numbers making large freezers and home food storage less practiced. Restaurants, coffee shops, theaters, museums, concerts and sporting events become part of everyday life.

Neither lifestyle is better.

They’re simply different realities.

We often assume everyone experiences the world the way we do. But our nervous system adapts to the environment we live in. What feel ordinary to one person many feel overwhelming—strangely quite—to someone else.

Someone raised in constant activity may find it a struggle to rest.

Someone raised in, open spaces may find the city crowded and exhausting.

Someone who has always lived surrounded by people may feel isolated in the country.

None of those experiences are good or bad, right or wrong. They are simply adaptations to the different environments.

Contextual Literacy is the ability to recognize that before we judge ourselves—or someone else. Sometimes expanding our understanding doesn’t require a change in our beliefs. It could be that it simply requires recognizing that someone else has spent a lifetime in a complex different reality.