Appreciation for the Other

Hello from a coffee shop in Kraków,

At the moment, I am neither in a Starbucks or a Costa, but somewhere I found close to my Air BnB, which is out beyond Ulica Floriańska, which has New Years Eve memories more than once. The coffee shop is called Green Coffee Nero, and it somewhat reminds me of The Motherlode, a blast from the past for my Houghton friends. I got up extremely early this morning to fly from Copenhagen to Kraków, a relatively short trip except when your luggage somehow did not get on the plane. As I sit here, my time in Houghton comes back again as I am listening to a song playing here from the first Tracy Chapman album, “Talking about a Revolution.” Certainly there is a revolution occurring in the States at the moment, but one in the direction many had no idea could happen. While my disdain for some of the methods of our current President are well-known, there is little doubt that the move to the right, and what I believe is a homogenization of the country, certainly at the expense of “the other,” is occurring. And yet, it is more complex than merely whites (and I am not understating the alarm of what is happening with the actions of ICE) at the expense of those who are not Caucasian.

While I have not dig deeply into the specific numbers of the 2024 election, there is no doubt that the re-election of Mr. Trump occurred because of more than the MAGA supporters of his policies. If I remember correctly, the Hispanic vote for President Trump increased by double digits. Additionally, he did better with both black men and women. The other demographic he showed significant change from 2020 election was in white males under the age of 50. And while, indeed, President Trump did win the popular vote in the 2024 election, his margin was not anything approaching overwhelming., though one has to admit the coalition he created seems to defy what many people believed possible. Nevertheless, his electoral college win was significant. And as my Danish friend and attorney has reminded me. We still have elections and we have the ability to question and change. Certainly there are some questioning that, but I do believe our grand experiment is resilient. Each time I have walked around Europe, even from that first time as a sophomore student at Dana, I was amazed and intrigued as I heard the different languages and observed the similarities and differences among us as peoples. I was first fascinated by language from my time in the service and immediately following. When I returned to Sioux City, we had a new pastor and family at my home church. They had spent time in Germany as a family and now German was part of their vernacular. I realized quite quickly how left out I felt when I was at their house and the conversation moved from English to German. Soon thereafter, when I enrolled as a student at Iowa State University I chose to take German because of that intrigue, of the listening to people I knew speak another language. While my initial foray into that was not completely successful, the seed was planted. Now almost 5 decades later, language has been one of my major areas of study and while I am no linguist, my enchantment with language continues. Learning another language acknowledges the actuality, the corporeality, of the other. During one of my trips with students to Eastern/Central Europe, I had dinner with two incredible young men . One evening when we were free from meetings, I asked them what the most important thing they had learned during our trip. One brilliantly answered (paraphrased), “While we are important as Americans, we are not as important as we think. There is so much of value outside America.” What an insightful and accurate thing to say.

As I walked along Rynek Glowny and the main square yesterday, the number of languages I heard (and could identify) were numerous: Polish, German, Ukrainian, Arabic, Spanish, English, and there were more. This amalgamation of cultures was invigorating to me. It was a beautiful, and quite warm summer day, but the people were just happy; they were celebrating. The bustle of some juxtaposed to those merely sightseeing was palpable. Even as I walked back home after 9:00 p.m. last evening, the square was teeming with people and again the cross-cultural nature was astounding. Certainly, the difference in size and proximity to another country and language affects this melting pot, and I know that there are struggles in the EU with immigration, with economics, and yet, because of the current situation in Ukraine, but there is something incredibly positive in such an experience. When I was in the Marine Corps, and quite young (17 when I enlisted), somehow I realized that a self-expectation that someone should speak English to me when I am in their country seemed a bit arrogant. One of the things I have realized as I considered Lydia, (the incredible Austrian woman I cared for) and those like her who self-exiled to America after WWII, was how much they gave up to become Americans – often their cultural traditions, certainly the speaking of their native tongue, and even some of their national idiosyncrasies. How much of that was willingly and how much of it was expected or believed to be expected? I wish I were insightful enough then to have those conversations with her. I do remember her once saying she took classes to try to erase her accent (it did not work), but even the attempt to do so says so much. I remember her noted that she and George often worked more than one job to make ends meet in those early days.

In the years since I was that young Marine, I have changed so much in my appreciation for the other. My life in the educational realm has afforded me the opportunity to learn, acknowledge and treasure things I could have never imagined as I grew up in Sioux City, a pretty basic NW Iowa town. I am not disparaging that foundation. It has served me well, but there was so much more to learn. It the years since graduation (and quite amazing for someone who never visited anything beyond a neighboring state), I have been to the Asian-Pacific, in all fifty states, through 90+% of Europe, Russia, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, and Canada, and there are still things on the bucket list. In every single place I have grown; I have changed; and most importantly, I have learned how much I have yet to learn about others and myself. How do we learn and assimilate knowledge and experience? It causes me to consider yet another thing I wish I understood more completely. A particular fascination for me is trying to imagine what infants are absorbing through their eyes as they look everywhere. What is being imprinted on their brains in those early weeks and months? One of my former Polish instructors has a little girl about 10-months-old. She is adorable and her eyes are incredible. She says so much with them, but simultaneously, she is taking it all in. There is no difference in her as a beautiful person of Polish and Columbia heritage or that 10 month old Dominican, Ecuadorean, Dane, or American. Their humanity is first. How have we seemed to lose that mutual humanity we all share? Am I being unfair in that assessment? I am not sure.

What I realize when I consider the other person is the giftedness of each individual, what their culture brings to our world, and how much I learn from them. At one point, I remember struggling with one of my students who comes from another culture. She was born in the States, but at the time it seemed, in what was my narrow opinion as I now realize, that she did not exhibit enough appreciation for our American culture. She is dear to me, but that was a tough time in my relationship with her. It’s about 10 years later and I realize now she was not only correct, but justified in her attitude. I thought I was sincere and correct in my view. While I was sincere, I was anything but correct. Even now, walking around Kraków these last couple of days, as well as Humlebæk or other places in Denmark last week, there is so much we might do to improve our society if we would take the other seriously. This is not meant to demean my country, but it seems our national arrogance keeps us from being our best selves. Next week I am off to another country and to visit another amazing student from my past. She was one of an entire class of international engineers who were in my 2nd semester Freshman Writing class. I am blessed to have two of them still in my life. I learned so much from them, even though I had to leave early because of health reasons, so I was not able to finish that semester. As I work on some other writing, the importance of the other, of travel, of language, of food all blends together because they are interconnected. I often say learning another language reveals so much about the people who speak it. You learn a great deal about how they think as well as what they value. Those are profound insights. And sampling and learning about their food as a cultural insight is exciting, and tasty!! Another benefit of knowing others from other countries and with different experiences is you learn from them in ways too numerous to count, and often what you learn can inform your opinions and perspectives in ways not expected.

Again, when recently speaking with Anton’s father, his appreciation for the American electorate and America’s system was instructive to me. While I understand our system quite well, hearing the perspective of this Danish lawyer was both refreshing and helpful. Speaking with my professorial colleague here in Kraków in the last couple days, or with people here from three generations over the last two days, I have appreciated their perception of what is happening in our country as well as in their own, but as much, it was refreshing to consider how the two countries have mutuality and importance for the other. I am sure there will be a similar conversation and thought when I arrive in Spain next week. While there is a certain ethnic purity in these countries, it is impossible to not see the effect of the EU on each of them, and certainly their opinions vary from country to country and person to person. That is normal, and it is what makes us so different and yet interdependent. Each time I travel I am compelled to reflect on who I am as an American, and how I understand my own country. That is not a negative thing . . . it is precisely the opposite. I am still patriotic, and it does not go unnoticed that tomorrow is the Fourth of July. However, we are only 249 years old as a country. The university I frequented here in Kraków was founded in 1364. Denmark was a powerful nation as early as the Middle Ages also . . . the Kalmar Union established Danish rule over Norway and Sweden, and their power as Vikings begins long before 1000 AD. Again, this is not to take away from what America has meant to the world, but there is so much to learn from the other. In the meanwhile, I keep traveling and learning. It is surprising that it has been six years since I was last here on Kraków for more than to fly through. Certainly, I am not sure what the future holds, but as I wrote in a recent Facebook post, it is my favorite foreign city.

Thank you as always for reading,

Michael (the wandering nomad)