Traveling reveals many things about yourself. As you are removed from your usual creature comforts and worldly delights, and exposed to what may seem like unusual and exotic things, layer upon layers of “you” are revealed in ways that would have taken tens of years to begin to appear in your usual home base or playing fields.

To be more specific, your usual views and perceptions, or ‘realities’, are thrown into an ever changing mix of other people’s and other culture’s realities so much that at times they clash and intrude upon each other enough to make it a bit awkward, and at times uncomfortable, for you to face. The trick in surviving reality clashes often is in remembering that all of these realities are in fact, well, REAL. None are more or less valid, and any one of those realities are just as true and empassioned as all other realities that exist.

In a way, you always have to be vigilant in finding common ground with co-existing realities every time they present themselves. And here, my dear friends, is where surfing comes in handy. As you travel the oceans and the surf breaks throughout this vast planet, there is no greater equalizer of realities than surfing and the search for the ultimate stoke.

Surfers throughout the world can look at a surf break and have the knowing look, that ever-so-subtle glint of mischievous discovery that only other surfers can recognize. It’s a planet-wide nod of acknowledgement and greeting without need for translation. Instant common ground, if you will. Those that acknowledge that their reality is neither infinite nor universal get to go through the life-size version of Monopoly, pass “GO” and collect their 200 dollars worth of good karma and mondo surf rides. Others struggle with the imposition on their realities and often times end up going past “GO”, not collecting a dime’s worth of karma and waves, and straight into the metaphorical jail on the game board.

Okay, so not everyone is with me on this one. I get that too. It’s part of the “overlapping reality thing” I was talking about. I struggled with the analogy for this for a while, sitting in front of my laptop with a blank page after the last paragraph. And like a bolt of lightning, a couple at the next table resolved the whole thing for me.

The husband and wife couple were seated about four feet away, and she was engaged in quite a rant about the conditions of the hotel that they were staying at. From what I could gather with my eaves-dropping skills, the hotel had a problem with their water supply and was without water access for a few hours. For whatever reasons or inconveniences, this was truly a sticking point for her, and she latched onto this inconvenience strongly. Her poor husband who had to endure the barrage of verbal ‘outpouring’ stared absently away, no doubt a coping mechanism learned from years of practice. And in one sentence, the reality that was impinged upon was made clear, she said “You know? We’re Americans! They should warn us about these kinds of things before they happen!”

Her reality of an always available supply of water at a touch, electricity at a flick of a switch, internet at a moment’s notice was shattered in one fell swoop. The comfort by which she had grown accustomed to, a reality she lied every day, had clashed with the realities of living in a place less developed than hers. This is not a judgement on her statement or reaction by any means, for everyone is indeed entitled to their reality and therefore their opinions. She had a point. They probably paid a lot of money to get there, stay at that hotel, and spend time there with the expectations of having those very creature comforts available. However, what failed her was her lack of adjustment to the very reality that existed in this very foreign place.

I looked over as the husband was turning around, and we caught each others’ eye. “Hey,” he says to me as he picks up his board and stands up “at least there is good surf out there!” Common ground after all.