One planet, multiple worlds…
By: Troy Wilkins
Tags: Perspective

Photo by Denes Kozma on Unsplash

At the end of the year, when the celebrations of Christmas and New Years here in Australia practically combine into one week-long celebration are filled with experiences that evoke memories. The sights of Christmas trees and Santa costumes, the sounds of Christmas songs, the tastes of things like Christmas pudding, many of these things have a powerful way of unlocking memories.

For some people, this is a good thing. They’re reminded of happy childhood memories, of times filled with smiles and laughter.

For others, this is a difficult time, perhaps because they didn’t experience the joy others are reminded of, or because those memories remind them of how alone they now feel — particularly with the threat of COVID-19 limiting get-togethers in some places towards the end of a year that is best described as “unprecedented” for so many of us.

Myself, when I tasted some of the lovely Christmas pudding we had here on Christmas day, I was immediately taken back in time to an event that would have been at least 36 years ago, and it really made me think.

This memory was of an experience I am unable to give my own children, and it was a stark reminder of how different things can be for different people, even within the same country, let alone people in different countries. It really made me think, hence sitting down to write my thoughts down here.

What I remembered, so suddenly and vividly, was a family gathering when I was a young child. Not a small gathering, but with lots of other family members. There was a man dressed up as Santa, handing out gifts to all the children who attended. And there was a big, fully catered meal, where we all sat down in a huge formal dining room, where waiters took our preferences for food and drink, and the key to this memory being unlocked was the Christmas pudding, with the taste being just how I remember it from all those years ago, the only real difference being that there weren’t coins hidden in the pudding this year like I remember finding all those years ago.

And this got me thinking about how, while we all share the same planet, breathe the same air, drink the same water, our experiences can be so vastly different, in ways we may not even realise at the time.

I had an experience a few years ago now, where I needed to travel interstate. I only took with me the bare essentials, expecting that I would be able to purchase some of the items as I needed them. Little did I know that this would turn out to be a problem, as I unexpectedly was left without the transport I was expecting to have whilst at the destination, and had to rely on travelling as part of a group. But no problem, I thought at the time, we’ll just stop at a supermarket and I’ll go in and grab what I need. When I expressed this desire to the person who was in charge of transporting the group of us, I was totally unprepared for the blank look I got in return, and the question “Can you get what you need from a convenience store, such as 7/11?”. The very concept of going into a supermarket was so foreign to this person, I may as well have been speaking a different language. And that was a stark reminder to me of how differently people can experience the world, when I’m used to just popping into woolworths to grab some milk, or whatever I’m going to cook for dinner, and meanwhile there are people who may never have stepped into a supermarket…

I mean, yes, I am well aware I write this from a place of privilege. There are far too many people who don’t even have access to clean, safe water to drink, people who don’t have the luxury of a stable roof over their head and access to food and clean water. I am lucky to not have the struggles far too many people still have in this day and age. To many people, the life I live is one of luxury they can only dream of in comparison to their experience.

Meanwhile, the experience some people have is so different to the one I have, that they simply can’t identify with the struggles I experience, because they’re used to other people doing things for them.

Every human being shares this same planet. But our experiences are so different, we live in effectively different worlds. The world I experienced at that Christmas celebration many years ago as a child, is a very different one indeed to the world I experience. And often we forget the fact that our experiences can be so different, we often take for granted experiences that we naively assume are more universal than they really are. For some, the end of the year is a time of celebration and joy, while for others, it’s a stark reminder of times they’d rather forget, of how alone they are but wish they weren’t.

Please, take a moment to think of someone in your life, be it a family member, friend, or even a work colleague, that may struggle at this time of year, for whatever reason, and be there for them. Your thought of them could make all the difference in the world.