23/11/2024
From J H., a recent client who returned to America November 19, 2024:
"Coffee made, 5:08 now. Ah, the pleasure of settling back into the world I know. Yes, the hot shower, the bathroom that I know how to navigate, my favorite chair. How great to have such comfortable aspects to a life.
And how great to leave them all behind for a while and experience the inevitable awkwardness of being in a place where the culture, the language, and the everyday habits are different and, to a degree, unreal. The dogs sleeping in the street, the traffic (foot, bike, car) that seems to operate according to herding instincts that are unknown to me, the sounds of the language, the gentility of the people, the apparent (to my eyes and ears) lack of irritability and stress, the willingness to connect. The openness of your families to this stranger, which included Chinu calling me at the airport. I have memories swirling in my head, given some attachment to reality by the many pictures and videos that we have.
Feelings, the true stuff of life. I found myself smiling and occasionally even laughing out loud for no apparent reason except for the entire experience still swirling inside me and occasionally surfacing on my face.
And you, Jason. You do indeed have superpowers and I can truthfully say that in a long life like mine I've never met anyone who occupies your dimensional space. You are out there, buddy. Your cultural experiences are so vast and they are simply part of you; I had no previous idea of their breadth and depth. You have great character and little to no ego that I can see (and I had plenty of time to see it) and this makes being around you for days and even weeks a great experience. I love the way that though you have thousands of stories you don't lay them on thick; it's never about you, it's about the story that's relevant to this thing that happened, and you're simply sharing it. Your willingness to talk to anybody and everybody has helped restore some of the positive feelings I have toward people in general that have been tested a bit of late. I'll remember you talking to the guy in the car next to us in traffic. I thought I did that a lot, but there's more room for me to grow. I am happy that we've become friends and I look forward to continuing that, and I can't think of a nicer thing to be able to say, especially at this time of my life.
And the trip. I don't have a single complaint. I felt supported and "guided" in a good-natured way. Though I certainly didn't fit the profile of an ideal organized client, I never felt judged or lectured; you let things develop as they did, and you made every effort to include me in your families, for which I will be ever grateful. I certainly had experiences that would not have been possible had you not been part of them. I also, importantly, occasionally had some privacy, and that was actually an important part of the experience, as it's hard to be "on" all the time in a different culture (or anywhere, for that matter).
Anyway, I wanted to share some of this with you and will look forward to talking with you when you get back.
J.H"
