We have been living in Germany for over three years now, actually three years, two months and fifteen days, but who is counting. And the longer I live here, there is so much more I find I don't know and am not even close to knowing. When I say knowing, I'm talking about the kind of knowledge that is so deep that one does not even know they know it. It is the kind of knowledge that you have to think hard about even knowing. In short, it is cultural. My latest example concerns time. Yes, we all know and joke about the Germans being a very time sensitive people, they like to be on time for all things. Which for me means always being in a rush, but I have yet to see a German person rush to get anywhere; for whatever reason, they are there on time or before, as I come skidding in the door sideways just to not be more than 10 minutes late!..I'm telling ya it is cultural, from the time a baby breathes its first breath.
Now the other type of time awareness I have discovered recently is the view of chronological time. Last week while in a ladies group, the subject came up of how long our family was going to be able to stay in Germany. I answered that we would be leaving sometime in the summer of 2010. The response was "So SOON?" In my mind I'm thinking, ok that is 18 months away...a lot can happen in 18 months, it is a whole school year and a half, it is one and a half winters,two springs, two summers away...my American cultural was showing. The German folks take their long term thinking very seriously. While most Americans may start thinking of a summer vacation by around January or February. A German family knew last fall where they were going for summer break and it may be camping just a couple hours drive away. These are not good spontaneous folk as a whole. So eighteen months is in the foreseeable future.
But getting back to my ladies' group, I feel so honored and humbled to get that response, they really do see my time with them as short. So in order for me to honor that I need to be aware and not flippant about time...on my watch or on my calender.
1 comment:
A very nice essay, Madge. I can recall my folks being very "time conscious". There were a few times they skipped a function rather than show up late. Of course, it was always one of us kids who caused the delay so we were "punished" by not being able to go.
Lou
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