The Backwards Bike and Cross-cultural Worship

Edit: Oops, I used the wrong URL for the video. Now it’s fixed.

It turns out that riding a bike becomes nearly impossible when you rig it to turn the opposite direction. Your brain can’t perform all the processes when just one is reversed.

I wonder what this says about cross-cultural communication. How many brain processes go into singing, dancing, or performing a worship liturgy? What happens when you have to suddenly perform a familiar action like these but one or more of the “rules” have changed when you are immersed in a new culture.

It also says something about the power of our brains to adapt with practice. The video shows that after a few months of riding the bike everyday, you can teach your brain to adapt. There is a path toward understanding a new culture, but it’s not quick and easy. It’s also every difficult to be a “third culture kid” who has to “ride their bike” in many different ways.

When we face an issue from opposite sides of the cultural divide (#Ferguson, #Baltimore) why does it seem like it’s impossible to get someone to “change their mind” to see things from your perspective? Maybe we are assuming that we can give people the raw facts and make to make them completely change their understanding without the more long term process of relationship and community.


, , , ,

  1. Leave a comment

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google+ photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo



Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: