Humble

Yesterday, Helmut and I attended “Understanding the Dutch” class. It was not what I expected, but interesting none the less. I was hoping for a little…this is where you can buy peanut butter or real diet coke…this is who you call if your toilet backs up…this street sign means you are entering a bike lane. Instead it was more of a human behavior analysis of the Dutch and how their nation’s history (politically, religiously and otherwise) has made them the way that they are. It was interesting and I am sure it will come in handy at some point. At this point, I have actually met very few Dutch. Our realtor is Dutch, but I think she deals with enough Americans that she knows how to handle us. I think the class is most beneficial for Helmut as he is working on a daily basis with quite a few Dutch. They tend to be very straight forward, rule oriented and correct you whenever you do something wrong (which we all know Helmut loves!). My favorite factoid from the seminar was this most famous Dutch saying, “Be normal, because you are already strange enough.” Going way back to Calvinism, the Dutch feel very strongly that all people are equal, no matter the circumstance. This saying basically means to them, “I don’t care who you are or how much money you have, you are not perfect and therefore the same as me. Don’t show off your fancy car or big house or how smart you are or how fast you can run, because you are the same as me.” In other words, be modest and humble no matter how much you have. I am sure we could all learn to be more humble.