It’s all a matter of perspective

A nice spot for some reflection. Phonsavan, laos

It’s all a matter of perspective.

I lived in China. I went to visit Hong Kong. “This is definitely not China” I said. When friends would say they had visited China but they really meant Hong Kong, I would correct them— “Hong Kong is not China.” 

I went to Vietnam. “Wow, so peaceful and gentle and empty compared to China,” I said. I told my friends. 

Then I spent the year in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. 

I went back to Vietnam. “How raucous, how boisterous and chaotic and caustic!” I felt. 

Now I live in Cambodia. I went to visit Hong Kong, a place I thought I knew.

But this time, I thought “Wow, Hong Kong is more China than not.”

What a difference perspective makes.