Friday, April 15, 2011

Tutuk thoughts

That is a word that most are not familiar with in our country. Yet if you walk the streets of Cambodia they are everywhere. A tutuk is one of the primary ways for internationals to travel.

Even though it is slow, dusty, and a cheap means of transportation, it can also be a very enjoyable ride. Our teams have enjoyed the ride as my daughter Hannah demonstrates above.

But each time I go to Asia there seems to be this desire for bigger, better, faster, quicker, and more like the Western World thinking among the Asians. To be quite honest, I want to say no, don't go there, it is a false joy, can be an empty pursuit, and will leave you unsatisfied in the pursuit of more.

Some of my greatest joys past and present, hover around homemade tree houses, pieced together bikes, wood go-karts and junk minibikes. Maybe we have believed a lie that says bigger is better and and more is advanced. When in reality, what really brings contentment is a so much less than that.

Longing for a time when a day consisted of 1 cent candy, tadpole catching in the stream, hide-n-go-seek in the neighborhood without getting shot, patched jeans from K-Mart, no Internet, dial up telephones, full service gas stations, sandlot baseball, burger chef burgers and so much more. Maybe in our pursuit of more we have lost something. A ride on a Tutuk sounds good today! 

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