Thursday, January 2, 2014

Crisis Averted

As incredibly knowledgeable as Simon is about American culture/pop culture/history/politics, I often forget that he is not 'of' this country.  There are subtleties that can be lost on him-and I usually don't recognize this until said subtlety is indeed lost.

Take the below photo.  After 18 months, we finally got around to uploading the first photos from our road trip that started in July 2012.  Anyhoo...after uploading this picture, Simon decided to post the picture on Facebook, and simply comment about where the photo was taken (Faith, NC...yes: Faith), and the occasion (July 4).
July 4th

Hours later, when I was pottering on FB, I noticed this photo was posted on his timeline without any commentary (namely...something about the irony of us posing in front of a Rebel flag on July 4th, it being the wrong flag, oh-look how odd...something.  anything).  And, I had a minor meltdown.  Perhaps I was being a bit too sensitive, but I freaked out realizing that my friends (of many different races) would see this posting of us in front of this flag-and think the worst.  What I observed (mid-meltdown) was that Simon really didn't understand my reaction.  And...this was a learning moment for me.  So, I had to explain the origin of my freak, and ask him to either comment on the photo to provide some context, or untag me.  He gamely did this (phew. crisis averted), but I could tell that there was a bit of surprise (confusion?  something else?) from him in the conversation.

Note to self:  no more pictures in front of Rebel flags....