An Audience of One

Recently, I have been asked quite a bit about what I struggled with the most in adapting to Jordanian culture. Competing on the list are things like the cat calling, the dress code in the summer and the lack of walking, but on the slot for number one is social pressure. I agree, there’s social pressure everywhere but it’s just a tad bit more apparent here because it is different from the kind of social pressure I am used to. As an example I would show you a picture of the restroom at the University here but you wouldn’t be able to see it anyways. It is always crowded with girls waiting in line to re-apply make-up and hairspray. Alright, so we aaaall do it… but not for a University language course and from what I remember, we don’t normally wear heels to campus –a usual here.

            Back home most social pressure comes from wanting to people please (at least where I’m from). If your friends smoke in middle smoke, you smoke so you can keep them. If you clean your room in High School, it’s so your parents will extend your curfew on the weekend. And if you change your hairstyle when you go to college, it’s so the mirror won’t get bored with you. In Jordan, social pressure has less to do with people pleasing and more to do with strong social norms. Here, you would not want people to think you are from a lower social class so dressing up is more of a priority; whether you are going to grab coffee with a friend or taking a bus to buy gum at a convenience store. I don’t necessarily run errands in pajamas back home but if the gym is my last stop, wearing my gym clothes all day is not a big deal; something you wouldn’t consider doing here. In relation to public transportation, I caught on rather quickly on the fact that if a girl has no choice but to sit next to a man on the bus or vice-versa, he/she should move as soon as another spot opens up. I learned this after getting a few frowns for not moving a couple of times…. Ooopss.

            The pressure here comes from frowns and stares people give you when you do something out of the norm, along with associations they might make about your living conditions. As I roam the streets of a foreign country, I realize the importance of fighting against the social pressures that may seem so normal but are nevertheless so dissolute. I don’t mean for you to be culturally insensitive in a foreign country or an outcast in your own but rather realizing that we are to serve an audience of ONE. Back home people can focus so much on pleasing others that they lose their confidence when their audience walks out on them. While here, people focus so much on following the rules that they forget the importance of turning that frown upside down. Whether it’s in associating achievement with acceptance or feeling uptight every time you step out the door, as Isaiah 55:2 says, it is time we quit spending our money and energy on what does not satisfy. Or centering our lives around what other people want or expect. So call on the Lord while he is near and lean on the faithful love he is offering you before you check yourself in the rearview mirror for acceptance, for the third time. Crack through the social air that is suffocating the truth and fight to accomplish the purpose for which God has sent you wherever in the world you may be.