Barriers

I'd like to say I've been blessed with the experience of men from many places. Judge away, it's not the way it sounds.

However, I've recently connected with someone who takes the foreign cake. South America is far. It's hot. It's seasons are reversed from mine. Culture is different, Language is different, and I'm familiar with 0% of it. Honestly, I couldn't even spell Buenos Aires previously. The language barrier was something undeniable. Communicating has never been an issue for me, in my whole life. So for the first time, there was a frustration that was a different color, and the newness and freshness of this color made it addictive. (Yeah, I'm freaky, whatever.) I found the need to explore.

I'm reading "The History of Love" by Nicole Kraus ( recommend!) and apart from being fantastic, at one point it depicts the world before there was words. People would communicate with their hands. Every flick of a pinky finger, every degree of a bend meant something. Communication was at a high calibur and has yet to reach that level today, even with words. This reminded me greatly of ancient japanese dance known as "dengaku" or "seragaku" which is literally one person, on stage, almost in complete stillness. The tip of the head downward ever so slightly means the character is mourning. It's simplistic and involved intermittently and is really quite challenging.

Before there were words, people communicated. Words are a tool, not a necessity. I have learned through my new friend, that I can see what he means in his eyes. In the way he smiles at me I can tell exactly what he's thinking. His motives, his dreams, his hopes. I can read the stress of the day in the lines on his face, and I can watch them fade as we laugh at each other in advancing the night. Potentially effective is the color his voice makes. It matches certain emotions and thus I can get a sense for what he's trying to say. I've learned a valuable lesson, having always been a talker/communicator extraordinaire; communication has nothing to do with words after all, and barriers are only barriers if you let them hold you back.