Deracinées. That’s what my co-author Yang-May and I were called in a recent review of our book.
The word has always intrigued me. But it was only recently, during a vacation in the mountains, that I was able to understand where my true roots lie.
It’s people that define them not geography.
On a gorgeous Saturday morning in August, I took a chairlift up the Dolomites to accompany my old friend Thomas and his friend Norbert on a mountain walk with a purpose.
For the past 20 years, Thomas and Norbert have been fighting greedy developers for the preservation of this unique section of the Alps. Recently, they used the internet to collect signatures from all over the world to prevent the construction of a sky resort in a particularly vulnerable part of these mountains.
Thomas and Norbert looked happy that morning. The Dolomites were about to be declared a United Nations World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The ceremony would take place in the Italian region of Friuli a week later.
While hiking up, I couldn’t stop observing Norbert. I remembered him vaguely from my days at Innsbruck University where the three of us studied. And I must admit, my recollection was more than vague due to what he calls “excessive partying”.
Norbert is a force of nature. His way of fighting for the environment feels strangely familiar. It is too similar to the nagging feeling I have had for years that if you believe in something, you have to stand up for it.
I guess this is the story of how I discovered one of my roots in someone I barely know and had not seen for years.
In case you were wondering…. Cross-cultural communication is to me what the Dolomites are to Norbert.
I will be thinking of him on Wednesday when Yang-May and I will present International Communications Strategy in London.
|
|
