Lyfting Me Up

We found a nice spot in the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen to sip our coffee and have a “Danish” in Denmark. A table looking out over a canopy of spring flowers was our perch. A few feet from us was a family of four sharing in their picnic lunch. Mom and Dad and two girls who I soon found out were five and seven. The birds provided a gentle background to a perfect Scandinavian spring day. 

The girls finished their lunch and were throwing pebbles in a pond. The younger one’s curiosity took over and she walked up to the two foreigners sharing their space. I looked at her and said, “I bet you are five.” She smiled and her mom confirmed. And with a knowing ‘Mom Nod’ she looked me straight in the eye and said, “What is your name?” Bilingual at five!!! I said, “My name is Mark.” Her blue eyes and blond hair framed a sparkling smile. “And what is you name?”  “My name is Isa and she is Lotte.”   

This opened up a 30 minute exchange with a delightful family. They were on a “Kings Day” Holiday. Tivoli Gardens is many things including an amusement park. The kids were there for the whole experience. What struck me about this interchange was the confidence of a five year old to try out her English on a grizzled grandpa type. I asked her if she watched the cartoon “Bluey” which is my grandson Conor’s favorite. She confirmed that she was a big fan. 

Conor’s sister Sofia is already speaking Spanish at age six. Heck, I barely knew my ABC’s and “See Spot Run” in the first grade. My greatest joy on this odyssey has not been great architecture or works of art. My happy place is being with a world that is both bigger than I ever imagined and at the same time so connected. Just this morning at breakfast we had a great connection with a mother and daughter from Holland traveling together. We exchanged pictures of kids and grandkids and got to see their “five generation” picture of them both with a 95 year old and a baby great-great-granddaughter taken this year. 

It is not lost on me that the gift of travel was passed to me by my parents who opened the world to me. At the center of our living room growing up was a globe of the world which was lit every evening. We had the World Book encyclopedia right behind it. On the coffee table there was Time, Newsweek, Life, Sports Illustrated, and the TV Guide. My sense of the world was shaped by a culture of learning and exploration.  

This current eight country eight time zone trek has reminded me again of the common thread that is our humanity. A cruise ship is sort of like a giant Disney Ride. You think of yourself as a participant but in many ways you are just an observer… until a five year old asks you in a language that she is learning what your name is. In that moment we were no longer strangers but rather passengers moving through the world together. 

Onward and Upward,

Mark