There was a janitor at the college where I swim. He barely spoke English and I don’t speak his language, Spanish. For several years, we said hi to each other every morning at 7am as I was getting dressed after swim practice and he was getting dressed in his work clothes for the day.
At one point, he went home to Peru for a month to see his family. When he came back, he brought me this carved and painted gourd as a gift. I hadn’t thought of us as friends, exactly, more just “good morning” buddies. I was touched to realize he used his precious small amount of luggage space to bring me this gift.
A gift, as a gesture of friendship between people who don’t speak the same language: evidence of a friendly universe.
Q