40 STRANGERS HAVE BECOME 38 BROTHERS AND SISTERS

NO, IT DIDN'T RAIN, NOT THIS TIME

I don't know about you, but when I go somewhere to a convention or some such event, it takes me a while to warm up and get myself going in the new environment.  The Voice from the Kitchen doesn't believe that.  She keeps insisting that from the moment that I arrive in a field of new "flowers" I am an instant social butterfly.  Not really true.  It does take me a while before I warm up.  Like, you know, thirty minutes or so.  

As you know we have been in France now for some ten days and it has been rather comfortable.  It is really strange how well these people speak French.  Boy, there good at it.   Problem is, in this group of 40 there are only about three French people.  The rest are are English, Polish, Angolan, Brazilian...you get the picture.  So anyway we actually have been getting along rather well, thank you.  It's interesting to me how quickly people get used to one another.  I can't figure out if it is because we all know that anybody can stand anything for a short period of time, or if it is really human dedication and attraction.  I know that there are a couple of these 40 people that are in that category as far as I am concerned.  I wonder if they can feel it.  I say that because there are already two or three, I think it is three, whom, I feel, feel that way about me.  In one case it has been so from the very first four or five hours of proximate presence.  As it turns out, after about two days it became mutual.  I am sure that neither one of us is going to cry at the other's funeral.  For the others, like I said, the jury is out.  That's what makes the whole experience  all the more interesting.  On the other hand, I confess to you that there have been some three turn-arounds, from cool to warm and that is quite a wonderful feeling.  It leaves me thinking how that happens.  That's the reason for the wonderful arc-en-ciel picture at the top.  This was taken early this morning.  We were perched on a rise overlooking a deep gulch/valley between the mountains.  It was clear that this was going to be a turn-around day.  We knew that the fog cloud filling the valley would be gone in a short while.  We were absolutely certain that our friendship with the entire environment would be cleared up as soon as brother Sun got his act together clearing this wispy white stuff out of the way.  At a given moment, looking over the sharp decline of our perch we noticed the sun hitting the cloud-fill at just the right angle to cause a rainbow to appear in the valley.  Now, our sure-shot hope turned into sure-shot certainty because the promise of clearing was in the act of nature itself.  Good stuff, this act of Mother Nature and her Sun.  They started out bashful, but in a short time, warmed up and the social butterflies swarmed and swirled and fluttered their wings at one another and had a great day.  No one was excluded from having a comfortable day.  When forty people are in a group that provides them with a common purpose, there is always plenty of comfortable company available.  In my case, if I don't feel comfortable with someone I conform my behavior to fit the situation.  It works.  Sometimes in my life I have discovered one of those turn-around experiences that I have never forgotten.  Perhaps because it's hard to forget all of ONE.  I am learning a lot.  Some of you will get to pick up on some of it.  You'll see, you will come to know that it was worth the experience of finding 38 good ones and only two grey area specimens.  I'll take that ratio any time.  You should too.