Thanks, Alex!

A very good friend of mine, Annette, lives in Barcelona. She has a nineteen month old little boy called Micah. I see her about every two or three years, but I speak to her on the phone quite often. The other day we chatted for two and a half hours. We didn’t stop for lunch or to discipline our boys or for any other reason. We talked nonstop with microwaves beeps, temper tantrum screams and toilet flushes all contributing to the background noise. My conversation with Annette was perfectly balanced, greatly appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed. We spoke about serious issues, we laughed our heads off, we gossiped, we reminisced about our days at university and we felt close thanks to Alexander Bell’s incredible invention, the telephone.

Change

Why are we wary of change? Is it because we are scared of the unknown or it is because we are often so content with what we have that we fear things simply can’t get any better? I embrace change. But do I embrace change for my child? I do question how he will process a move to a foreign country, how confused he might be, and how quickly he’ll adapt to his new surroundings. I remember when I moved from Berlin to Toronto. So much that was familiar and important to me was lost. I had to come to grips with a new currency, I had to get used to taking a lunch box to school instead of having a three course meal in the cafeteria, I had to make new friends and learn to like new cartoons on TV. But one of the most awful experiences for me was when my father allowed me to choose a candy bar in the grocery store and I came to the heart braking realization that my favorite German chocolate bar was no where to be found in our new and foreign Canadian supermarket. This memory reminds me that often parents underestimate how difficult the little adjustments are.

Do these trials and tribulations, when we tearfully select an unfamiliar packet of sweets, when we temporarily forget where we live and reply “danke” to the teacher to the rapturous laughter of our classmates, when we’re regarded as an idiot for inquiring what a taco is, does this render us stronger or more vulnerable and timid?

I suppose in the long term one gains a greater appreciation for the world we live in, for the differences and similarities that exist between us and those that are important and those which are not, and I believe that instilling a sense of adventure in our children, a sense of "this world is really quite small and it is all for you, my son” is a great gift that we can bestow upon our children. I have lived in many countries and I have precious friends scattered all over the globe. I hope when my son is my age it’ll be the same for him. I hope his children have at least three passports and I hope he always goes through life with a horrendous phone bill, and I hope he grows up to speak many languages, and I hope he knows that his world knows no bounds.