Breaking the Barriers

12. Good afternoon.  Good morning, good night, wherever you live, greetings.  I did say I’ll work on posting often.  So, I have a new caregiver at night.  Although, unfortunately, that isn’t uncommon, this scenario is different.  The head calls me and says, “How’s your Spanish?”

“Es ist nicht so gut.”  BTW, yeah, that’s not Spanish.  I took German in der Schule.  He said the caregiver goes everywhere, and they just love her-understanding Spanish or not.  He told her the run down and sent her over.

I know Jason posted about her putting Vagisil on my toothbrush… Yeah, I don’t know much, she doesn’t know much, but it’s getting better.  BTW, I caught that before putting it in my mouth.

However, that got me thinking: perhaps the number one problem with most human beings is simply, we can’t understand each other.

Think about it.  Whether it’s a language barrier, a mental wall, whatever is blocking us, isn’t that why arguments start?  How many battles-wars-could’ve been prevented if this guy understood that guy?  I think a lot of it starts with language.  I’m using my Google translate when she comes, which is every night.

I know there’re a thousand different languages out there-it’d be impossible to learn all of them.  However, I encourage you guys to look on the internet or pick up a book or whatever and even just glance at it.  Now, I know, if you’re like me, you’re going, “Why do I need to learn ___ when I live in ___?”  Yeah, I do say that, because here’s the thing.  If I went to Italy, I’d (eventually) be expected to know Italian without assistance.  If I went to Germany, same thing.  France, India, yep, there, too.  So, why learn Mexican because there’re a ton of Mexicans in Texas?  Are they trying to learn English?  I hope so.  But it’s all about compassion towards others.

Speaking about my caregiver and myself, I don’t know why she doesn’t know English, but I can see she is now trying.  Maybe my cases are extreme, but think of this for a sec.  You wake up, not where you fell asleep-you’re somehow in a different country, and nobody understands you.  How do you eat, where do you sleep, who would be your friend, how do you pay for anything?  The list goes on.

I think Christopher Lee spoke 6 or 7 languages.  Can we try to speak 2?  Like I said, I know some German.  Maybe there aren’t twenty million Germans in Texas-I could look at a Mexican book, but let’s break down these barriers once and for all.