During his stay in Italy, Gilbert learned that Italians appreciate momentary pleasures, such as eating delicious food, much more than Americans. As I read with Gilbert about how he combined the values ​​of all the places he traveled to – Italy, India and Bali – I realized that it is not only okay, but also useful to explore other cultures and even respectfully adopt their values ​​and beliefs. their practices to create their own culture rather than passively accepting the culture in which they grew up. After reading Gilbert's account of his time in India, I thought that cross-cultural similarities make different cultures valuable, but the book as a whole taught me that there is a lot that different populations can learn from the differences between their respective cultures and that these differences can be much more useful to know and consider than the similarities between all people. I realized that my bias towards beliefs with similarities to my “white Anglo-Saxon Protestant” upbringing did not indicate the value of these beliefs. Different cultures are valuable regardless of how they are related to other cultures. You can always learn something from exposure to different cultures, even if you don't want to adopt Buddhism as a religion or hedonistically eat dessert at every meal. Simple tolerance and acceptance is a significant gain that can come from education and experience with cultures and beliefs different from one's own