The Dutch woman in Macedonia who helps me with Trump
The Dutch lady was barely paying attention to our conversation. “It’s Bitola, not Bitola” she said, putting the stress on the first syllable instead of the second. BEET-ola. Grateful for the correction, I couldn’t fault her for her distraction. Greek bus stations are a lot to process, even without your 15 year old son getting on a bus to Macedonia by himself (previous post about him here). But eventually even the peregrinations and perturbations of buses grow dull, so we talked about her family’s relocation to Macedonia.
Waiting for a captain on Lake Ohrid, Macedonia
“We’ve lived there a little over a year now, it’s a remarkable place. We like the people, though they’re a little hard to get to know at first.” I took that with a grain of salt. After all, she was Dutch, perennial co-champions with the Canadians for World’s Friendliest People. “But it’s funny, they don’t know how good they have it.”
She trailed off, watching her son wander in search of a WC. But you can’t just say something that interesting and stop! “What do you mean?” I prompted.
Macedonians haven’t figured out a cure for this either
“Well, sure the economy is shit, which they all complain about, but it just means they don’t work very long hours. So they have a lot of time to spend with family and friends, eating on the street and singing and things. The wages are enough, or not quite enough, same as everywhere. They just earn their Not-Enough faster than everyone else.”
I remembered my Macedonian colleague back in my immigrant-job days in a Belgian call center. “A lot of Macedonians go west into Europe for work though, right?”
“Oh yes, many of them do. They almost all want to. We’ve already lost some great neighbors. I’m constantly wondering that they don’t write back and tell their family to stay. Tell them that when they move, they’ll just work more and relax less. The country is beautiful! And safe. They should stay, appreciate what they have, savor the food, be grateful for their loved ones! Relax and enjoy life every day, as they have it!”
This guy knew how to relax and enjoy the fountains in Skopje
That made sense to me then and it makes sense to me now. Here I sit, ignoring the scrolling list of Trump’s latest outrages, feeling like It’s All Over but the burning…
But then that Dutch mother’s voice comes back. Appreciate…be grateful…relax and enjoy. Yes TrumpCo is a disaster. We know that. And we know that we’ll do whatever we can to oppose his horrors, every step of the way. The worst harm will come to the most vulnerable, and that is fundamentally not okay, is soul crushing for those who care, but one can care…and not be dragged under. We can still smile. We can enjoy the food. We can appreciate what we have.
Thank you, Dutch mother. You’re helping me with a problem we never would have believed, those six months ago.
I hope her words can help to tide me over too.
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On the bus later, her son gave me her number for when I got to Skopje. I wish I’d kept it, we could all call in for mutual support!
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It will probably get worse before it gets better as Trump tried to unravel the chaos that politicians created as the norm for over 100 years. So yes, listen to the Dutch woman and heed her words – they should help many others too.
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I fear you’re right about it getting worse before it gets better. And the unraveling of what’s come before, as he undoes the world order of peace and cooperation that we built after seeing the suffering of WWII, a suffering you are so intimately aware of.
It’s terrifying to see such authoritarian and anti-Democratic moves, threatening the very checks and balances we built to protect us. Today’s contribution is putting his political adviser on the National Security Counsel. That taboo is bad enough already, much less removing the guaranteed seats of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence! And then there’s the fact that the adviser in question is a white nationalist and fake news demagogue. We’ve forgotten the lessons of the Greatest Generation. I fear how we might have to relearn them.
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We had already forgotten the lessons of the greatest generation and we haven’t been safe for a while. I think we’ve become too complacent. Just think – what if all this mess actually worked?!!
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The Dutch seem to have the right idea about everything, all of a sudden. Have you seen that wonderful “Welcome to the Netherlands” thing? (http://infotel.ca/newsitem/a-really-great-welcome-to-president-trump-from-the-netherlands/it38964 ) Genius.
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Leave it to the Dutch to be politically intelligent AND funny. (Well, and the British of course. And Australians.) So much goodness all over the world! But speaking of Europe, I just saw this from NL’s near neighbors in Denmark. So good!
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Well, I don’t know if it’s my time of the month or what, but that just made me cry. Thanks for sharing it.
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In a cathartic or uplifting way? (hoping, hoping!)
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Both – definitely.
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