Imagine Human Beings

I realized that when you travel alone you FEEL a lot more. Your eyes are more open and your ears too. You’re human, so you look out for interactions or at least observe them. And you gain a complete different perspective of the world around you and the people in it.

So when I walk alone in a new place in a new part of the world, doing it alone has a complete particular taste. And of course you learn a lot of yourself, you have more time to focus on how YOU interact with the world, how certain things make YOU feel.

I remember being in Berlin, I was alone, it was a Sunday and it was one of my first solo travel ever. On Sunday cities tend to have a particular mood, don’t they?

All the shops are closed there’s less people and less locals around and they’re quieter. And if you’re a traveler you can’t help but wonder where are the people, what are they doing? How does someone get entertained on a Sunday if you can’t be home on the couch but you’re in a city alone?

As always I wonder and wonder, I was walking in a residential neighborhood in the city. Literally giving up hope on me creating friends or finding some company. I was just strolling looking around. Berlin though, has a special magic of its own. Somehow in Berlin it feels like you always fit. Because there are so many different people from so many different backgrounds, everyone has its own style but everyone perfectly fits. There’s a strong acceptance of any color, language, style or whatever.

But back to me wandering on a Sunday in the city. As I’m getting tired and lonely I sit on a bench in a park and look around, loneliness was really getting the best of me.

Then a scenario happens, like a scene from a movie: I see a white man, coming to sit at a table near me, following, a blonde little kid.

‘That’s cute’ I think, a solo father with his kid at the park. As I keep looking at the scene another kid comes running, and a beautiful woman with a hijab follows.

And after a while a couple of boyfriends come.

My mind, probably prevented from all that is happening in the world right now, with hate, prejudices and closed minded people taking over, was kind of curious and worried about what was going to come out of that interaction, of those people so different from each other sitting so close. Were they going to ignore each other? Maybe throw shades at each other?

The joke was on me really.

These couples were actually friends, apparently, best friends: I watched them organize the nicest little barbecue in the park as their kids from different ethnicities played together. It seemed like the ending scene from a movie.

I was filled with love, happiness and gratitude knowing this world could actually make it work for once.

As these thoughts run through my mind and my head is completely in the clouds the woman in the hijab comes to me offering me a plate from the barbecue.

I was a complete stranger sitting alone in a park, maybe she felt my loneliness maybe she just had the habit of sharing and yet she came to me asking if I wanted to join them.

As I thanked her and joined them at the table I spotted a sign: ‘Imagine human beings, all of them friends’.

Sometimes I think life plays tricks on you to teach you lessons with some perfect moments that feel like a movie you’re part of and you can’t escape, but a beautiful movie.

A couple more people came and started playing their guitars…imagine human beings, all of them friends.