Snapped on the move: having just arrived back from a trip to Hamburg (the Central Bus Station is just out of view), now waiting for the S Bahn to take me home. Cars whizzing past on the Autobahn next to the train tracks. Looking at the “Internationales Congress Centrum Berlin (ICC Berlin)” and the Funkturm (former radio tower). People on the move, messages on the move.
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/on-the-move/
Rule number 1: you don’t start conversations with random strangers on public transport in Berlin.
Rule number 2: you don’t let people know that you are reading their newspaper/magazine/book over their shoulder.
Well, both rules were broken this morning. I was on the S Bahn, reading an article by a friend of mine on honour and shame. Next to me were a mother and her young son, deeply engaged in a discussion about the Lego thing he wanted to buy with his birthday money. Or so I thought anyway. Suddenly mum says: “That’s a really interesting topic!” It took me a moment to realise she was talking about one of the headings in my article, ” Choosing between honour and shame”. “The world would be a different place”, she went on, “if each morning we all decided which of those we wanted our day to be like, and let that guide our actions and even our thoughts!” Not really what the article was about but an amazing statement nonetheless!
And then she says: “That explains so much about how the Japanese government is dealing with the whole Fukushima thing.” More along the lines of the article. We talked a bit about communication between cultures. She was getting all enthusiastic:”It is so important that we learn to understand how other people think. People should be taught about intercultural communication! It doesn’t just happen automatically. Even though there are kids from different cultures in my son’s class, they often don’t understand one another and the differences just lead to arguments and fighting.” Then we arrived at my stop and I had to get off.
Maybe that’s why we don’t talk on public transport – you have to stop just when it gets interesting!
Ain't Mine No More 