In June I had a charter in Grenada with a wonderful family that included two boys age 14 and 12. On Friday we sailed to the town of Gouyave to participate in the fish fry (I told you about this in last Friday’s blog). Since we got the boat anchor in the early afternoon I asked if the boys wanted to go jump off the end of the pier. They loved the idea and we had a blast jumping off the concrete pier which was about 10 feet off the water. When we did this all the local boys that were fishing started joining us and everyone was having a blast.
We finally headed back to the boat and when we looked back five of the local boys were swimming out to us. Well the next two hours was a whirlwind of activity as all seven of the boys played, swam, paddle boarded, pushed each other off the boards, and everything else boys do. What I loved about this is the boys did not care what each other’s skin color was, what country they were from, or the fact they did not always understand each other. All they wanted to do was play and have fun.
I have seen this with many kids on boats and have even heard of kids having “best friends” for the week or two they were at an anchorage and they did not even speak the same language.
If only we, as adults, could emulate the inherent acceptance kids give each other. Imagine how better off the world would be if we saw the individual and not the skin color, religion, social status, and other barriers we put up. As I jokingly say, do not hate someone based on the stereotype…..get to know them as a person and then hate them. 😊
