Wednesday with Avrom – Keep your eyes on the road….

We each have a special contribution to make in the world – we need to determine our own unique capabilities, capacities and experiences that differentiate us. When we constantly look at others lives and try and imitate them and yearn for what they have, we are not living life and benefiting the world.?

Avrom has taught me how to embrace and extrapolate the life lessons and wisdom from daily interactions. Each experience, whether positive or negative, gives you something that can improve your life and assist you in making your unique contribution.?

The following story is a great example from Avrom on how to reflect on an experience and internalize the lessons.

The year was 1955 when, at 19, Avrom was offered an opportunity to be part of a small group of students who would be assistants at a summer camp in Jerusalem, Israel. Avrom was excited at the prospect and convinced his parents to finance the trip. Other than airfare, the sponsoring organization would pay all expenses, including the cost for an extensive tour of Israel.?

Avrom and his four friends began the journey in NYC. After flying from NYC to Scotland, they preceded to London, traveling across the English Channel to Paris, and then to Venice through the Alps, and on to Venice. Upon arriving in Venice, they boarded a ship to Haifa. The ship arrived in Israeli waters very early in the morning. When the Israeli coastline became visible, the passengers hurried to the deck. They watched the appearance of the holy land with great anticipation and emotion. Avrom can still recall the overwhelming effect it had on him.

The boys second adventure was about to begin as they went through customs and boarded a train to Jerusalem. They arrived with great anticipation at the school where they would reside for 2 months.

Life in Israel was very different from the routine these young men were accustomed to in the U.S. They had to get used to a different language, different kinds of food and, most significantly, different attitudes about life and social style.?

One especially intriguing difference concerned the influence of politics on so many facets of Israeli daily life. Newspapers were allied with specific political parties. Many banks and health institutes were operated by political organizations and some schools were run by political entities. More notably, the population was consumed by politics and spoke about political issues constantly. During the summer in 1955 elections were held in Israel, heightening the preoccupation of the citizenry with politics. Avrom found the level of political concern to be somewhat shocking and amusing. The large number of political groups, some with extreme agendas, seemed quite strange to someone from a country with only two major political parties.?

One day toward evening, Avrom was on a bus heading back to the section of town where his school was located. The school was on the edge of town and the last stop of the bus route. As the bus proceeded on its route, almost all the passengers got off, leaving only a handful of patrons. Two men got into a forceful debate about the forthcoming elections and began shouting at each other with strong language and extreme anger. Suddenly, the driver – a man in his late 50’s – pulled off the road, stopped the bus, left his seat, and joined the heated political argument.?

Fortunately, Avrom was not on a tight schedule that day and did not suffer from the delay caused by this strange diversion. He mused about what would happen if such an incident occurred in the U.S. He realized that such a skirmish was very unlikely as Americans in 1955 were not as obsessed with politics.?

Avrom was an undergraduate student at the time, majoring in Political Science. He wondered which was the better system – extreme involvement in national politics or relative indifference. Regardless of the right answer, Avrom came away with the realization that foreign travel is an important ingredient in learning how different cultures function. It is also something that all young adults should be encouraged to experience if circumstances make it possible.?

Most importantly, Avrom learned, regardless of how passionate you are about politics, if you are a bus driver, you should focus your attention on the traffic!?

This is part 44 in the Wednesday with Avrom series, please check out more?here.