Matt W Cook

Back row, left to right: Haleema, Izzit, John, Devraj

Front row, left to right: Rani, Ruth, Rakhil, Paul

My wife is from a different world. A world where some things are better and some things are worse. Did you know in her world you don’t need to have two incomes and two cars to make ends meet? In her world you talk to your neighbors and invite travelers and strangers in for tea. In her world you have time to juggle work, study, family and social life with little difficulty. It’s nice.

Of course, it’s not perfect. The climate is very difficult. Her world doesn’t have much of the nice, soft things we have in our world. Her world doesn’t have nearly as much education or health care as ours, either.

Four years ago, if you had asked me what I think of Canada I probably would have said (with a high and lofty smirk), “Pft. Canada is crap. Canadian culture is crap. It’s all crap and crappiness.”

But I actually do love my world, the world I was born into. It stresses me out sometimes, but so does my wife’s world. I think every world does, just because our worlds are made up of screwed-up people.

I want to live in two worlds. And I think I can do it. And maybe, by doing it, I’ll be making a newish sort of world. A world with the nice things of suburban Canada and the nice things of rural Pakistan. Wouldn’t that be a nice world? I think so.

What sort of world are you trying to make?

This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com