Out of the mouth of babes…

I used to journal a lot, and the joy I find in journaling is being able to go back in time… before the Instagram and Facebook era. This happened about 31 years ago… when our oldest daughter Becca was about 4 years old, and we had moved to Sharjah, an emirate of the UAE.

We lived in a small apartment building next to the souq (a market place lined with beautiful small shops and restaurants), in a town called Rolla, and Becca was ecstatic to find that the apartment next to us had twins her age – twin girls named Ammu & Binu. The three of them soon became inseparable – and if allowed, would play all day in either our home or theirs. I never could understand the closeness of this friendship because, Becca spoke only English, and her friends only spoke *Malayalam. But, that did not seem to deter the three of them and they played together for hours on end. All I could hear was a jabber of Malayalam, punctuated by English chatter, and then gales of laughter.

So one day, I had to ask…

Me: How do you understand your friends, Becky? They don’t speak any English – and you don’t speak their language? But you guys have so much fun together?

Becca: Oh, Ammu & Binu can’t speak English, mama. But you know, we all laugh in English!!

I laughed at the time but maybe there is something deeper in the words of a 4 year old, that could teach the world a thing or two! In this day and age when seemingly simple things divide us, it’s good to remember… no matter our vaccination status or the colour of our skin; no matter the language we speak or our political likes and dislikes… we all understand laughter, right? It truly is the universal language… a gift from the Creator.

*Malayalam – a South Indian language