No, this saying doesn't mean the world is a rubbish bin (trashcan in American English, but my nephew, Aaron, prefers rubbish bin) though it might seem that way. Remember the children's song 'It's a Small World'? To the Spanish, the small dimensions of the hankerchief are comparable to each individual's tiny universe. Besides, everyone thought the Earth was flat before it was proven otherwise. We've all experienced this smallness of our planet, and I'm going to tell you about some of mine.
Years ago a couple of friends and I went to Rome at Easter where we saw the Pope (John Paul II) up close and personal - this, of course, before the attempt on his life. Just thought I'd throw this in even if it has no relationship whatsoever to my experience. We were in the Coliseum and my camera had just run out of film, which didn't make me too happy when suddenly I hear 'Mama, Mama! There's my English teacher!' Sure enough it was one of my little pupils from the institute. I don't know how they had got to Rome, but they hadn't travelled with us. However, all roads lead to Rome, don't they?
I had a similar experience years later in which I was walking down the street that I'd lived in for a long time when I was stopped by a young lady who said: 'Hey, I know you. You were on my flight from New York.' Well, I do go to the bathroom a lot on flights so, in this case, we had travelled together but to Madrid.
Lastly, (I've had others but don't want to bore you with all of them) when I made the move from 360 to here, the very first video I put on my page was a Tangerine Dream one. The person who added his photos to the music did an excellent job. It's almost as if the photos were taken with the music in mind and vice versa. Then I joined a few groups, and do you know what? The author of the 'Tangerine Dream' video posted a response in one of these groups!
How about you? I know you've had your encounters and maybe some of them I know about. I'm off to visit Post Secret and, although this isn't an unexpected encounter, sometimes I read unexpected secrets. Have a good week and Happy Thanksgiving. I don't envy you your turkey and all the trimmings too much.
Gotta tell you one of my stranger ones (there are many!). I once traveled to Austria for a seminar that had people from 30 countries attending, with several from the United States. Please understand that I knew NO ONE attending this event. As I chatted with the man next to me, I learned that he was with the University of Georgia at Athens. When he asked where I was from, I told him it was a tiny little town in Kentucky that he had no doubt never heard of, Booneville. He immediately exclaimed "I've been to Booneville!" Turns out that his colleague at UGA (and his writing partner) was my distant cousin. Yep, the world is definitely small sometimes!
ReplyDeleteVery nice blog! I got a chuckle out of the 'all roads lead to Rome' comment. I used to have these kind of encounters, but it has been a long time. The most interesting one that I remember was while I was in boot camp in Orlando, Florida. I saw a woman that I thought I recognized. I said 'hello' to her... it turned out that she was from a small town in Arkansas that I had lived in when I was 14 years old.
ReplyDeleteHere's another encounter I'm going to include as a post script. I'd completely forgotten this one and it's quite recent - from October in fact. I live near the Plaza de Toros (Bullring) and most Sundays I take my collection of paper to a paper bank that's opposite the Bullring. Lots of times I see tourists there taking photos. On this particular occasion I saw two girls from KENTUCKY taking photos.
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