One of the local grocery stores has an aisle dedicated to “ethnic” foods. Various genres of staples, spices, and sweets each get a 4’ section of shelving – with no smooth transition from one to the next. So Mexican tortillas sit next to Asian rice, and Italian pastas touch Japanese nori. As I scanned the aisle searching for arame (for an experimental recipe I plan on making this weekend), I saw an elderly Norwegian couple looking closely at the Scandinavian section of the shelves for a specific product. Immediately to the right of this couple was another duo, a young Indian pair looking for a special cooking sauce. The two older, pale people migrated to the right, and the two younger, dark people shifted to the left – and a second later all four people bumped into one another, completely startled by the presence of the others. They all pulled back quickly, blinked their eyes in surprise for a second, and then smiled at each other. Without saying a word, each couple gently nodded to the other, then gracefully walked down opposite ends of the row.
It was a fantastic convergence of completely opposite cultures (a genuine “West Meets East” type of exchange), and a wonderful reminder that despite our many differences (age, gender, skin color, attire, or food preferences), we are all simply people. Skal! Shucram! Salud!
Stef
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That was wonderful for you to see, and it just goes to show that we CAN get on with other people from different cultures and countries. As you said, we are all simply people, after all.
Absolutely. We are humans first, gender second, culture third. (And I might argue we are actually animals first, humans second, gender third, and culture fourth… but I’m not going to debate that point with anyone.) :)
:)