timelishus

Posted initially on December 5th, 2007.

Experience affects perception and vice versa. Humans are exceptionally skilled at learning from observation. However, when we experience a concept for the first time, we try to make sense of it by comparing it to a similar and familiar experience. Piaget, the famous developmental psychologist, would call this Assimilation. Piaget also posited that Accommodation occurs when we understand the concept on its own terms accounting for its unique attributes and subtle differences from the concept we originally assimilated it to. This explanation from childhood developmental psychology makes a great deal of sense to me and is applicable, in a large degree, to adults…ok, to me.

To illustrate my point, let me take you back to the summer of 1988, when I took a break from my academic pursuits at the University of Kentucky and worked for the “Mouse” at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. My education continued, although I received no college credits toward graduation.

This was the first time I had ever lived outside the borders of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Up until this point, my exposure to diverse cultures, ethnicities, languages, and ideas had been somewhat limited in my homogenous surroundings. So when my friends invited me to live and work with them for the summer, I enthusiastically accepted. Being an affable and sociable kind of guy, I quickly acquainted myself with my friends’ friends and the summer-long party commenced!

On one particular night at the beginning of the summer, three of my new acquaintances introduced me to an Orlando jewel of a restaurant/bar called Julie’s on the Waterfront. My friends ordered a pitcher of Watney’s, which of course I had never heard of, but became quite a fan of it’s frothy amber goodness. We ate dinner on the deck as we watched a skier glide across the small lake and got to know each other a little better.

After several pitchers of Watney’s, which by the way acted as a catalyst in transforming our relationship to a full-fledged friendship, we were the most amusing group of people we knew. I can’t say that anyone else there felt the same about us. So, at the peak of our merriment, someone had the brilliant idea that we should go downtown to the Blue Note for some live music. (Disclaimer - I do not condone driving under the influence of any substance. We were light on wisdom and experience in our youth.)

Fortunately, we made it downtown without incidence. The joint was jam-packed with other 20-30-somethings, but we lucked out and got a table. Again, we were reveling in our Watney’s-fueled hilarity teetering on the fine line of obnoxiousness, when John suggested we should order a case of Deeahs.

I had never drunk a Deeah before, but I had never heard of Watney’s either, and it was great. Even though I had imbibed generously from the Watney’s fountain, I had enough wits about me to know that I had pretty much reached my limit. Since there were four of us, I knew there was no way that I could drink six more bottles of beer. Since these were new friends and not being a fan of confrontation, I opted to refrain from protesting. Instead, my anxiety had a sobering effect on my mood.

After several minutes, our server returned with a cheese-filled flour tortilla folded in half, topped with sour cream and guacamole. Perplexed, I asked what was being served and someone said, “It’s a quesadilla.” Simultaneously, I experienced several emotions: Relieved that we weren’t going to be drinking ourselves to oblivion; embarrassed and amused at my own ignorance. When I told my friends about my phonemic assimilation error,(Mondegreen) they and I laughed hysterically! Our friendship was officially solidified.

I look back on that whole summer with great affection and as an eye-opening experience of how expansive and wonderful the world could be. I felt so optimistic and excited about discovering more of what it had to offer including life lessons.
- That wherever there are people, there are opportunities to make new friends.
- Take some risks.
- Be willing to laugh at yourself, because it makes the errors much more fun.

Cheers!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Humor. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.