Notes from Abroad
My wife and I have spent the last several weeks in the beautiful alpine village of Grindelwald, Switzerland, a community of around 3,000 people nestled between mountain peaks with formidable sounding names like Eiger, Wetterhorn, Jungfrau, Mönch, and Schreckhorn. We’ve been spending a number of weeks here every year in the fall for well over a decade and have grown to love the people and the culture.
Even as a child I knew that there was something special about Switzerland. My father was stationed in Udine, Italy, and my family frequently spent our vacations traveling in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. But Switzerland was the land that captured my heart at an early age. The snow-capped Alps where I learned to ski were breathtaking and the beautiful lakes, mountain streams and green pastures, where cows lazily grazed, were everywhere to be seen.
The bakeries, though, with their tantalizing aromas, continue to climb to the top of my favorite childhood memories, especially the various kinds of bread—firm on the outside but with soft, chewy centers. When I’m in the good old U.S.A., the Swiss bread is what I miss most of all. For some reason Americans just don’t know how to make bread! Maybe it’s because bread in the states is made to last for months, while bread made in most European countries, including Switzerland, is made to last for a day or two at most. The chemical preservatives added to stateside bread dilute taste and drastically changes the texture, at least for me.
While the Swiss cuisine has certainly been a draw, we have done more than eat our way through Switzerland, although I have consumed way too much cheese and bread for sure! The primary attractions that bring us back to this mountainous land again and again are its miles and miles of hiking trails and the land’s magnificent natural beauty. Each day we ride gondolas, trains, busses or sometimes ride on small boats to reach hiking destinations or special sites of interests. In the seats next to us we engage with people from all over the world—South Koreans, Japanese, Middle Easterners, English, Australians, Israelis, Chinese as well as people from all over Europe and different parts of the United States.
We have met both young and old and discussed politics, religion, the war in Ukraine, the world economy and, of course, family. Sometimes the folks we meet have opinions quite different from ours, but the goal in these accidental meetings is to listen and get to know these people from regions of the world we know so little about. We want to build bridges of understanding and friendship, not walls of disagreement that further divide.
What we’ve discovered is that people from around the world have similar concerns and fears that the majority of Americans have. Surprisingly, these people from different cultures, religions and political perspectives are worried about problems such as migration, education, rising food and housing costs, military tensions between the West and the East, global pandemics, rising crime rates, declining cultural values, the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, and the unsustainable exploitation of the earth’s resources—deforestation, overfishing the seas, the shrinking of aquifers world-wide due to overuse.
In America, when we read the newspapers or listen to the nightly news or engage in social media, we can easily believe that the problems our country faces are unique, issues that the rest of the industrialized world does not face, at least to the extent that we do. Not so. Inflation is a problem everywhere, in most countries far worse than America. Crime is rising everywhere as are declining moral and ethical values. What to do about migration has become a global headache as the changing climate, wars and violence have dislocated millions of people.
While cultures, languages, religions, and politics can vary greatly from one country to the next, human beings still share many of the common dreams and goals of life. People want to raise their children in safe and healthy environments; they recognize the importance of education for themselves and their children and seek opportunities to learn; they want fair and equal chances to rise as far as their talents and work ethic will take them; they want clean drinking water and a roof over their head and clothes on their back.
The people we have met from many places around the world are not so very different from us. They want what we in America want—the opportunity to have a fair shot at becoming their best selves and to live with dignity and respect. All people, regardless from where they come, are part of the human race, which binds us together in some mysterious, even sacred sense. Have we not all been created in the image and likeness of God?
We’ve watched Muslim men tenderly embrace their children. We’ve observed young Chinese women and men holding hands on the train. A Japanese woman bowed and thanked me for giving her my seat when all the others were taken on the bus. We marveled as people from all over the world snapped cell phone shots of the magnificent Gießbach Falls, just as we did. The beauty of God’s creation knows no language barrier. We giggled when we couldn’t understand an older woman from Asia, knowing that a warm smile can sometimes communicate what words cannot.
I know evil exists in the world. I am aware that even as I write these words there are places where children are hungry and in need of medical attention and cities and villages are being leveled by bombs and rockets, killing innocent people as beautiful as the people we meet daily on our hikes and excursions. Just as innocent are the migrants who are fleeing violence, famine, and intolerable living conditions, praying that somehow God will open a window for them and their families so they, too, might have a chance at life.
What seem like intractable problems may not be so overwhelming, if only the human family would work together. Because we are all so very much alike is it possible that we can find common ground that will allow the human race not only to survive but flourish? Maybe our Heavenly Father is watching to see if we can put aside our grievances, prejudices, and hatreds long enough to see the other person as a human being, precious beyond compare, created in the divine image.
If only world leaders would have to ride public transportation!
