When Lives Collide

Not so much a collision course. More like synchronicity. That’s the way my mother puts it. Things happen. Exactly the way they should. When they should. We have to allow. Should the circumstances prevail, which lots of times they do.

At 18 years young I took off to travel Europe. First London, then Paris. Many more after that with the Eurail Pass. My landing strip with time was the Greek Isles.

I digress. The journey began with me alone. Along the way I would find help. Here and there. But for most of the time, it was me.

It happened one day, in the midst of a day of loneliness, I’d decided while in Paris to stroll to the Louvre. All of a sudden I hear my name. She stood before me. A neighbourhood childhood play pal from two doors down. Wow.

We embrace. We hang out. We laugh. Time rolls on. Eventually we carry on our separate ways. Me? I was elated. It was exactly what I needed. To hook up with someone familiar, in a culture completely unknown to me.

We carry through life our thoughts. Our conscious. The dreams for tomorrow.

Instinctively we do what we think is right. What we should do. Because. Like a stream flowing downstream, our destinies unfold.

People come and go. Each with a purpose. All with a reason. Some for a while, others for a little.

We have to allow. 
For these lives to collide.

Old School New School

For sure when I was 18 years-old I didn’t know what I wanted to do. A girlfriend from school who was sent away to study in Switzerland spoke with me on the phone one day.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

I remember replying with something to the affect of “Not much.”

“Well, if you’ve got the money why don’t you come to Europe?”
Two summers in a row I was fortunate to work for the Provincial Parks Branch. I’d saved the money. Even with my horse, I kept up part-time jobs and left the money in the bank.

When the idea crossed my temple, my only thought was “Why not? I’ll try anything once!”
Back then you could buy a Eurail Pass and a Youth Hostel membership pretty cheap. I did all that. Got on a plane and landed in Europe. Alone. Yes. Was I scared? Not really. But Europe was bigger then I imagined and getting around no easy feat.

I managed England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and finally Greece. Where I ran out of money and had to work. Slept on beaches. Celebrated my 19^th birthday on a Greek Island called Paros.

Now that my only child has graduated and turned 18, I keep telling him “You need to get out of dodge.”

I suggested he come to Uganda with me in November. School or Africa, take your pick.

There’s hesitation in the decision so far. Six weeks without a Blackberry pretty much. He’s talking to me while he’s having at least three different Blackberry Messenger conversations with his friends.

Without the Blackberry, what’s left? Face to face communication. Direct eye contact. Verbal dialogue.

Is that what they call Old School?