What a Difference a Generation Makes

Today I saw something that would have been virtually unthinkable 30 years ago. No kidding. Right after class this morning, I went to have a cup of coffee with an Egyptian friend of mine. About half an hour after we sat down and were talking about a whole variety of things, another classmate of ours stopped by and pulled up a chair. I was glad to get to know him, too. It looked like my friend and this other guy already knew each other pretty well, which seems fairly commonplace amongst the LLM students who are here - the tie that binds them is that they are almost all from outside the United States, so that makes for some amazing ethnic and cultural combinations.. including this one (delayed punchline, for sure.. I have to make sure it has the right amount of "umph" down the stretch). They started talking about growing up and how much different things were now and how things were going in the United States and about one of their favorite travel destinations and how much they wished they could go back there sometime soon. They talked politics, but only in peaceful terms. They laughed and smiled. I watched the whole thing unfold, participating marginally in the conversation that ensued. I could tell after a little while that they actually didn't know each other particularly well, but were instead taking a rare opportunity to get to know each other better.. and they had some amazing topics to discuss. My conversation with my friend got a little side-tracked, but that was perfectly fine with me.

The moment reminded me of the one time I saw my two grandfathers sitting together, talking, reminiscing about how far back they went. It was just me, sitting on the carpet, and then both of them sitting on ottomans just shooting the breeze. I promised myself I would never forget that. I still have the image of my mom's dad looking over at my other grandfather, smiling and laughing, and my dad's dad looking slightly aside but literally grinning from ear to ear, with his big bushy eyebrows raised (the same eyebrows I inherited), chuckling as the two of them caught up after many years. It was Christmastime.

I watched my two friends talk amiably for at least half an hour, then walk for a ways together on their way to prior engagements as I had to take off the other way. It was really something special, in a somewhat mundane but still totally remarkable kind of way.

You might be able to guess the punchline by now...

The one who had come to join us at the table was from Israel.