Pineapples and Perspectives

The other day as we were grocery shopping at Carrefour, our neighborhood supermarket, I noticed that there was a guy across the street with a wheelbarrow of pineapples. He was obviously a vendor, as he walked among the cars trying to sell his wares. He approached us as we were loading up all of our groceries into our two running strollers. Perhaps we seemed approachable because we weren't going anywhere fast or perhaps it was the novelty factor of seeing running strollers, or a family of blonds in Brazil. Either way, he came over.

He first asked where we are from. Finding out that we are Americans, he went on to say that he believes life is so expensive in the United States. (Mares and I have found the exact opposite to be true: living in Brazil (Brasilia, at the very least) is much more expensive than life in the U.S.) I told him how cars, electronics, groceries (seemingly everything) has been more expensive for us in Brazil. Not missing a beat, the pineapple vendor noted that pineapples are much more expensive in the U.S. than in Brazil. He did have a point. Pineapples here are like a half to a third the price of pineapples in the U.S. So, I suppose if selling pineapples is your livelihood, life in the U.S. is more expensive. It made me reflect on the reality that all too often we perceive and view the world from our unique prism, with our unique perspectives. The context can make all the difference. If selling pineapples is all you know, then life in the U.S. is expensive. It's all relative. Good thoughts that help me analyze my base assumptions and premises.