The human symphony

When I was six years old, my father bought a new car.  This was in Spain, back in 1969, so the word car probably creates and image in your mind that truly misses the mark. What my father bought was not a "car", it was a French made Citroen 2CV, a wonderfully quirky vehicle with an incredibly strange design and a certain style, that to this day, is one of its own.

Everybody was excited about the purchase, so we took the car out for a spin.  My dad decided that we'd go to a nearby beach, one that was close to the local airport so that we could watch the airplanes take off and land.  We drove a few miles, windows rolled down, having a great time.  It was unusual to see my parents happy together and excited about anything.  Their life as small business owners was harsh, too much work, not enough leisure time to enjoy themselves.  This evening was somewhat special.

We parked a few feet away from the beach, on a small dirt road.  We had the view of the incredibly bright blue Mediterranean sea in front of us, behind us the sun was setting, clouds on fire, on this glorious summer evening.  As we were caught up in the magic of the moment, a truly gigantic airplane, a 747 Jumbo Jet, took off and flew over our heads, engines roaring, I could feel the vibration on my chest, it took my breath away.  I was hooked, my love for travel, airplanes and all things adventurous was born screaming that day.

I recall asking my dad where the plane was headed to.  His boiler plate answer was always "Nueva York".  I had to go there first, if I could.  I had always felt an affinity for the American culture, with its mixture of resourcefulness, creativity and openness.  Just a few weeks before, Apollo 11 had landed on the moon.  What an incredible thing to do, for absolutely no reason.  Doing things just because you could was totally my cup of tea.  Yes, I would start my travels with the US.

Over the years, I have visited many countries, lived in many places and adapted to the quirkiness of the locals in each place I have lived.  A little like the Citroen 2CV, each region of the world is wonderfully strange in a certain way.  The locals will never notice anything unusual about their ways.  As an outsider, you have to be ready to be considered the odd one out wherever you go. 

I am lucky to be fluent in two extremely popular languages.  This made things simpler for me.  I have yet to find someone with whom I could not communicate at some level.  Nothing compares to establishing contact when you are interested in learning about a new place.  There is a different "soundtrack" to each person you meet.  Faster or slower pace, emotional highs or lows, levels of curiosity, energy, drive, self respect, respect for others and so on.

Each culture is an incredibly nuanced approach to life and comes with a basic instruction manual on how to handle the human experience. Each person within each culture represents a variation to that main theme. Like an orchestra, all these notes interact to create the grand symphony of life.

In this new world of ours, technology is making all these cultures converge, as if the walls in the concert hall are crumbling down.  All these different styles are being forced to share the same mind space.  A space that is becoming smaller each day. Sometimes cultures clash violently, but for the most part, I see the beginning of a truly global culture, one that values openness and creative sharing, a new culture that will define the rest of the XXI century.