Adaptability

I was sitting in my bedspace earlier, listening to the sound of gunfire and explosions and it dawned on me yet again just how adaptable we, as humans, actually are.  This was never more obvious to me than it was yesterday evening.

I was sitting with a colleague, waiting for transport to get from the American camp to our camp on the British side.  As we talked, the two of us were gazing at the beautiful spectacle of flares in the sky and tracking the red streaks of tracer rounds.  This of course accompanied by the sound of automatic gunfire and the almost continuous drone of helicopters entering and leaving the area.  We looked toward each other at the same time and both burst out laughing as we realised that we were enjoying the beauty of something that most people would find intimidating.  We now accept as normal what others would deem unusual.

Not so long ago, just over a year in fact, seeing someone carrying a weapon was cause for a second glance.  Now, that is the norm.  Rather, it is the one not carrying a weapon that we stare at, deciding whether they have just arrived or are about to leave.  A weapon on a table, pointing in your direction is no longer a cause for concern - even those who find it uncomfortable would just push the barrel aside, albeit gingerly.  Walking around the smoking areas or through the cookhouse, we don't even stop to think as we step around the weapons lying on the ground, daring you to trip over them in a moment of inattention.

The sound of air traffic, gunfire and flares no longer distracts me from what I am doing.  I no longer hear a bang and pause for a second to consider what it might be, momentarily flinching and ready to drop to the ground.  I just go on with my life, secure in the fact that if it was anything unusual, the alarms would be sounding.  And even that has now become something less than worrying.  

It just goes to show that we can adjust to anything out of the ordinary, given enough time.  In an ideal world, it wouldn't be necessary but we live in an ever changing world, where some places are less hospitable than others.  All we need to do is accept the differences and acceptance follows.  If only we could apply this to other areas of our lives, such as this differences between people from other parts of the world and other cultures, wouldn't our world be a much better place?