Faith in Kindness

For a few months now we’ve been planning this family adventure to Seoul. Over the last few weeks we’ve been reminding the kids of the various aspects of etiquette: Never use just one hand to give something to someone – especially an elder. Bow when greeting people. Never leave your chopsticks in the bowl. Kamsahamnida is how we say thank you – use it all the time. Chesonghamnida is how we say sorry – that will probably be something we need to say quite a bit as we learn how to navigate a whole new place. Never, ever raise your voice or loose your cool, it’s embarrassing for everyone and will get you nowhere.

And then, just yesterday, we were all reading together from a book about Korean culture, with some multiple choice questions. One of them was, what should you do if you are standing on the subway carrying a bag and you feel someone taking it away? One of the answers was tug back, another one was freak out. The third and correct one was say thank you, because it is a common thing on the Korean subway for seated passengers to lighten the load of standing passengers by holding their bags.

Mind…blown. We all sat back and quietly imagined what would happen if we didn’t know that and someone grabbed our bag. All of the most awkward scenes played out in our minds and we were reminded that travel is really about having faith in the kindness of strangers. About assuming the best in people. And knowing that there is so much that you don’t know…yet. ~ Jenny