Our Rainbow Globe from a Distance

From the peak we saw Mt. Fuji in the distance, wreathed with clouds. The terrain was breathtakingly beautiful.
Wooden bridges arched over streams with fresh goldfish underneath, swimming contentedly, freed from their winter aquarium confinement.
The people on the wooden bridges stopped to pat the heads of the fish lovingly as the cool water streamed through their fingers. We marveled at their harmony with nature. They didn’t fight against it or fight with the rest of society about downsizing them out of jobs in polluting factories.
In fact, we didn’t even know these people very well, except in reference to a dvd from Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth. The other cultures expressed astonishment at our man vs. nature outlook.
In the video, there was even a lady doing a dance with a cobra, taking a chance every once in awhile, to kiss the cobra on the nose before it took its opportunity to bite her. Jo Campbell thought the serpent had been unfairly demoted in our culture.
Of course, other cultures aren’t always so much better than ours. The story was told that one lady from the East at an American party saw a black Labrador dog, making its way through the crowd. After seeing the canine, she responded, “Oh, Christmas Dinner.”
Monkeys have been beheaded on the sidewalk, roasted over fires, and served to the public. One of us, who was an American Sailor at the time, respectfully declined with a “No thanks.” At one time, he even witnessed people eating monkey’s brains when the relative beasts were still alive. It was considered a delicacy.
Still, we have a certain fascination with other cultures, such as the Icelanders, who honor the abodes of elves and won’t do road construction if it’s determined that the "hidden people" don’t want you to build there. The elves cause the visible people a lot of hardship if they do. So, they hire experts to determine if it’s okay to build there.
Referring to Iceland as a very strange culture, because they’ve had eyewitnesses to the hidden people, was quickly countered with, “No, ours is the strange culture with a financial priority on war as opposed to Scandinavian cultures, which have enough money for citizens to have health insurance.” Iceland is one of the remaining cultures where both Christian and Pagan cultures are pretty much equal.
There’s a whole world out there, with Mt. Fuji in the distance: Samisen player and chanter accompany life-like puppets on the stage run by black-clad, considered therefore, invisible, puppeteers. Thornton Wilder, in writing the play, “Our Town”, borrowed from the Chinese. Also, some of our ways of theatrically improvising in a scenery-free environment and using imaginary props probably grew from this influence, too.
It would be nice if we could all get to know one another, swap ideas, and borrow the best of all cultures from one another.