Conversations at a Dinner Party: The Curious Character of Expats

Just some of the snippets of conversation that I happened to hear or be part of at a recent party at the home of some friends:

- The retired CIA agent talking to the quantum spiritualist about tesseracts.

- The entrepreneur (and motivational speaker, author, investment-expert, Crohn's Colitis expert, concert promoter, business development consultant…) speaking with the expat chiropractor about global economic policy, fiat currency collapse, and precious metal investing.

- The marketing director/community advocate talking with the independently wealthy, 31-year-old, juvenile ex-con/investment consultant about cosmological influence upon human lives and affairs.

- The same marketer/advocate talking with the maid about her family and life in Cuenca as it has been for her and those like her over the past 50 years.

- The nonprofit manager/environmentalist/politician talking with the astrologist (who is also the 31-year investment consultant) about the lack of access to fresh water faced by much of the world and how to solve the fundamental causes of these problems.

- The life coach talking to the Ecuadorian and her Welsh husband about the trilogy she's writing on the world after the Great Turning as told to her from spiritual entities she channels.

So I have wondered, upon arriving in Cuenca, how is it that we are meeting so many remarkable characters with such amazing stories? Is it that leaving one's own country (said "comfort zone") for another heightens the remarkable nature inherent in all of us? Or is it that to leave one's own country is not so remarkable for those already living a life less ordinary?

Perhaps it is a bit of both. In order to leave your comfort zone, you must already have a level of courage, motivation, or experience that will get you to take that first step. But if you have made the move and embraced it, then perhaps you will be more open to being fundamentally changed by the experience, such that you develop a greater capacity to "grow".

Or maybe moving to a foreign country is just plain weird and all these people (all of us people) are just plain weird. Ahh, that's a lot easier and doesn't hurt my head so much. We'll go with that answer.