FOOD FOR THOUGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

No Pictures, no fanfare, just some thoughtful words in this blog.

I have a friend, a retired teacher, from Turin, Italy who spends about 4 or 5 months every year here in Merida. He speaks only Italian and Spanish. Although I am of Italian descent, I only know a very few words in Italian and most of those are swear words and a few obscene hand gestures! And, my Spanish really needs some help, but my “Spanglish” is perfect!

My Italian friend had a houseguest from Turin, a chemist, who was a former student of his! This guy was traveling alone to check out Mexico and left his wife and kids at home in Italy. He naturally spoke Italian, but only a few words in Spanish and a few words in English!

I was invited to his farewell party, and readily accepted the invitation to go and have the opportunity to say “chow”. At the party, there were a total of 15 people or so. Some spoke Mayan, some spoke Spanish, some spoke Italian, and only two spoke English! There was a very nice older couple who were artists of sorts in that she had painted 65 different Cathedrals here in the Yucatan, and he never left home without his guitar. Together, they were an awesome duo as she sang and he strummed out the tunes on the guitar. Some songs were in Italian, some in Mayan, and some in Spanish.

Now if you have the picture, we were a gathering of 15 people and we did not have a common language. However, communication wasn’t really a problem and everyone accepted each other’s language and customs without reserve. We all got along just beautifully and everyone was smiling, laughing, singing along, and we all had a great time.

Here’s the food for thought: What would it be like if the entire world could get along and accept others for what they are and not what we want them to be as we 15 did at this little gathering? Can you just imagine it? Wow – it would be awesome! What would the news networks talk about? Wouldn’t it be incredible to see that happen in our life time? I think so.