My dear steemit friends,
I was sitting in a cafe' the other day with my friends. Next to us there was a little two-year-old boy with his grandparents. He kept looking at me and hiding and peeking over a chair. I laughed and I hid too. My friends told me I was crazy. I remembered what my mom told me once – your company should always be diverse; there is only profit from talking to complete strangers and people who aren’t your age. When I come to think of it, the best conversations I’ve ever had were with kids who are so blatantly honest, and with my grandfather Mile. When you hear other people’s stories, that is how you put your thoughts into perspective. That kid in a café reminded me of laughing for no reason, and it was the most beautiful thing that happened this year.
In January people usually talk about plans and resolutions they won’t keep. We were pretty morose that day. It is difficult to find a job in Croatia and a lot of people flee to other countries in search of a better prospective. “Like in the old days”, somebody said. “They would go to Germany, earn a ton of money and come back.” Except it’s not that easy to move and start a new life and expect flowers. My grandfather usually says that you’re always alone in a foreign country, and that it is the worst feeling in the world.
My grandfather is ninety-two now and he lives in Herzegovina. We visited him a couple of days ago for Christmas. He is still full of life and full of stories. Especially during lunch when he drinks some wine. “Alcohol and women will always help you out” is his usual comment. He had a difficult childhood. There were eight of them and they rarely had food. He lost one of his brothers because of famine, and his sister died of a regular cold. In the second world war he would steal food from the Germans. Once they were shooting after him and he was running as fast as he could while his heart was pounding in his chest…
Mile is uneducated and he never reads newspapers. He can watch the same news all over again on different channels on TV and still forget everything. Nonetheless, he is the smartest man living because he has a special kind of wisdom that comes from experience. On family gatherings he goes over the same thing even though we all know it. He is boring to most of my family but I love listening to him, especially to his stories from Germany. He visited a lot of cities there in search for a job. “You realize how languages are important only when you go abroad. It was hell back there”, he usually says. “Once I was in a train, I had no idea what time I was supposed to come to Munich… I didn’t know who to talk to, I didn’t know the language… Luckily, there was a man who understood what I wanted to know and he drew a clock on my hand, he explained everything… I had no food, to toilet. We went to some joint house where we would wash ourselves, we miserable people who were fighting to survive… I even lived in a haunted house. The landlady told me every person who stayed there died in a couple of months! And look at me now. Ninety-two years, my God! I wish I could die and be at peace for once.”
Eventually he found a job in Munich and he managed to communicate with other people. Once there was an important German officer whose car had to be fixed and my grandpa was the only one who managed to repair it. He gave him 10 marks and he told him Bravo, Tito!, which means well done, Tito, since Tito was the leader of Yugoslavia back then and everybody knew him, and if you were from Yugoslavia, you were lucky to be ruled by Tito. He spent a couple of years in Germany. He earned enough money to come back, to build two houses and start a family. We are all highly educated in my family. Even though my grandpa never got a formal education, he always says that you’re nothing without it. “People are too competitive today”, he said once. “They think they know too much and they want everything, but they somehow forget that you have to work hard for it.”
I guess we all expect things to be different in other countries, but I believe that we are all in a big bunch of mess nowadays. People have forgotten how to speak to each other even when they now the same language, and how to help each other out. But those are some other stories… The point is, when I fly high in my imagination, my grandpa always puts me back on the ground. It’s good to have fantasies and I welcome it, but only those that know how to walk firmly on their path will ever succeed in achieving their goals and dreams.
All images and text published in this post are my original work!