People are Funny

The last couple of days in Cancun have been a much needed break so everyone has been hanging out around the hotel soaking up sun, tropical breezes, and resting. The hotel is packed full of people from all over the world and it still does not seem overly crowded. There are several swimming pools, the beach front lounges and palm tree covered paths filled with chairs or lounges to relax in. Our group seems to have splintered into about three groups each finding a different portion of the property to relax and enjoy the sun. It’s funny with Anchorage being a relative small town so with this group everyone knows each other or has worked at one time or another for the different companies represented here. With a few of us there has been ‘history’ with each other providing some of the divisions it seems.

It has also been a time for some of us to reflect on past ill feelings and talk to repair friendships once again which has been great while with others you can see there is no interest in ‘hanging around’ close together. It’s interesting to observe how different people react to each other in certain situations. I guess for some time heals wounds while for others it remains a festering sore, open and bloody.

One of my favorite things is talking and meeting people from all over the world. There are many people from Europe, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales who are on holiday (vacation). We have met people from different parts of Canada, the Lower 48, and New Zealand. It has been great seeking out their views of the World’s politics, economy, and what they think about our country. Some of the views offer different perspectives from what Americans seem to see which has been both enlightening and sometimes thought provoking. Europeans seem to have similar views to the United States while Canadians seem to take on a very different perspective. Both offer highly spirited debate, all of it with a bit of laughter and a sense of everyone coming to a global consensus. The Canadians seem to feel that they are directly impacted with the decisions the U.S. President makes as it is also tied into their economy, immigration, and military. They are hopeful this term provides a clearer path for both our countries.

Wayne & I met a woman from Ireland the first day that was stuck on the elevator with us who was on her honeymoon. We have spent time with Ryan and Daniele over the last couple of days enjoying the ‘accent’ while relaxing. Our first night was spent on the veranda telling jokes while enjoying the gentle sea breeze. Each day since we have hung out by the pool or in the late night sports bar talking and laughing. Ryan is a farmer who tells funny stories. To be young with hope and full of dreams of the future, they are great. The hotel staff upgraded their room to the honeymoon suite so they would spend their final two days with a nice gesture from the Riu. There may be hope for our world yet, as it starts with those random acts of kindness towards others with each successive gesture gaining momentum for a better world.

Simon is a man from Holland who hangs out with us each evening during our veranda bar ‘social hour’. He is so tanned with a white beard and broken accent like the grizzled character from “The Old Man and the Sea” but seems somewhat like the preverbal ‘snake oil salesman’ when we have talked with him. We observe him on the beach each morning with his wife soaking up the sun but as the day grows long he leaves her and continually seeks out the younger women to talk with or enjoy a drink from one of the outdoor or beach bars. He has a quiet dinner with his wife then it’s off for the chase. His bark seems louder than his bite but our thoughts are it seems like a misguided “007” adventure where he thinks he is Sean Connery but without the cool suaveness James Bond has.

Our first night after all the regular bars closed Colin, Wayne, Mike, and I went to the Sports Bar which is open all night. We met a group from England who were here on holiday with a wedding thrown in. They had the wedding our second afternoon here but not before some misadventures. The groom’s father played tennis with his son just hours before the ceremony where the groom fell and broke his arm trying to hit a ball. He left the hotel for the hospital and barely made his return only minutes before the starting time wearing his new arm sling. The dad felt bad that he had been involved in causing the accident but the wedding went off beautifully with everyone getting pictures by the ocean.

I met Dan the same night who was from Michigan who is 19 and came here with 64 of his friends for college break. His mom is a travel agent who booked his friends trip along with about ten chaperones to watch over the group. They have been the late night partiers with everyone gathering in the Sports bar to finish off the night. A couple of his friends have been funny to watch as they deal with first drinks and freedoms not experienced in life. One guy ended up on the beach lounge chair sleeping it off but before the morning sun broke the horizon flipped the ‘bed’ and ended up spending the rest of the night with his face in the sand. He looked pretty rough for the next two days.

We have met several European’s while at dinner or on the beach and see the drastic cultural differences as you walk by and they begin talking with you. There is no uneasiness as the wives are topless and the casualness of the conversation lingers on. Not exactly what our country expects and they talk of the differences in television commercials which shows both the body and a wicked sense of humor. It is an interesting phenomenon to observe. Americans seem uptight to them in both dress and expression and think we need to loosen up a bit and enjoy life more than we seem too.

We met two couples from Toronto Canada who were funny and engaging in our differences of culture. The first meeting was around the pool then another on the veranda. They dropped into the Sports bar last night for a great debate and conversation mixed with laughter. Common ground with different perspectives voiced in funny and somewhat heated debate. I will probably do another blog post about their encounter later when I have time to write about it.

All in all I come away with a feeling that our world is in pretty good shape as we make our way through our differences and reach common ground of how we should live in the future. Oddly enough, the common ingredients are laughter and open communication between ourselves. Such a simple thing but so hard to continually do each day.

Ice