He’s a young man who sits at a table in Izy Coffee Langemunt studying Mandarin.  He’s always friendly to me and has challenged me to speak in Dutch.

I didn’t notice him sitting there when I came into Izy yesterday.  But soon we were waving to each other from across the room.

Later he came over to ask me the meaning of an English word and I was happy to help.  I looked at Boaz and wondered if I should tell him the truth.  And the answer was “Yes”.

I’m been avoiding having a conversation with you, Boaz, because you’ll engage me in Dutch and I haven’t been studying for weeks now.  It feels like I’m losing the language.  My motivation has disappeared.

We laughed.  And so began a long talk … in English.

He talked about starting to learn Korean.  His heart wasn’t in it so he stopped.  I talked about letting go of being a Zoom host for Evolutionary Collective meetings after five years in the role.  And Boaz has also stopped being the projectionist for hymn lyrics at his church.

We agreed that once the task has sunk into being an obligation, there’s no sense in continuing.  It’s good to let go of things that no longer thrill our soul.  Other opportunities will come our way.

We wandered over the landscapes of other topics.  Right now I can’t remember what they were!  Doesn’t matter.  What is important is that a 21-year-old and a 75-year-old found common ground.  We connected.  Our differences paled before our common humanity.

There are so many fine people in the world