I invited participation. I want people to come here and engage. That is not the problem.

How to explain this....

OK.. I invited you all here to my house to share. I set the menu. I told you what it was. Accepting the invitation, you have, it would seem to me, accepted the menu. It's not fair to come in and say, "No, you should be serving Thai food since you have lived there and have experienced it and know how good it is for people rather than serving Italian food that everyone already knows and understands and is is comfortable with." You didn't even notice that I have modified the Italian food with some of the things I have learned about Thai food. I want to serve you something that you like, and are comfortable with but that you can easily relate to and understand and learn from. If I jump in and serve everyone the mama pad kiemaeow that I had for lunch yesterday, most everyone will take one bite, scream in pain, and run away from the table never to try Thai food again.

Asian people do not think the same as western people. It is a different view of life. TOTALLY different. How does that get shared with western people with their very different way of looking at things? That is what I want to talk about. I don't want to talk about how my spaghetti isn't authentic. I don't want to talk about how Thai food is the only truly healthy food in the world and it must be served precisely this way or you lose the "true essence" of Thai food.

If I run home and start talking to everyone in the US about how people outside the US look at them, the people will go on the defensive and shut me down. If I go home and say, the world is coming to an end and western people are the cause of it and if you don't give up all of your "stuff" you will bring the end, people will get defensive and drive their cars more to show that they can do it.

Oh well....the Buddha didn't convince all Asians and Jesus didn't convince all the people who call themselves Christians....who do I think I am?