Doing Life Together

Doing Life Together

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.

Road tripping has become a Memorial Day weekend tradition in my family—with a twist you might not expect. For the past few years, we’ve invited Chinese teachers who are here for a year or two as part of an exchange program to join us on our travels. Together, we set off for a nearby destination that’s doable in a three- or four-day weekend.

One of my favorite such weekends was our road trip to Rapid City, South Dakota. We stayed in a tiny cabin and explored Mount Rushmore, fed carrots to the donkeys in Custer State Park, and took photos astride the jackalope at Wall Drug, where we laughed so hard, we almost wet our pants.

Doing life together: it is one of my favorite things. And taking international friends on vacation with us quickly became a cherished pattern in my life. There is nothing quite like road trips and kitschy tourist traps (thanks, Wall Drug!) to replace polite small talk with the stuff real life is made of: discussing cultural differences within the safe context of friendship and building memories as our children turn somersaults in the warm sunshine on the freshly mowed lawn of the small mom-and-pop campground.

If you are mentally ticking off your family’s unique quirks and thinking to yourself that such an adventure would never work, please believe me when I say that my family is not perfect. Inviting others in doesn’t start with a four-day road trip to the Black Hills looking for buffalo and jackalope. It starts small and tentative over bonfires and potluck dinners. It starts with being bold and brave enough to reach out to a stranger instead of hiding in the comfortable circle of your best friends.

Our colleges are filled with students from all corners of the world, many of whom are here on their own and would love to be adopted for American holidays, cultures, and customs. And our cities and neighborhoods are filled with new arrivals, people craving connection beyond our polite but often distant and dismissive small talk. Let’s invite them in.

— Julie

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Consider who you might invite into your circles: the single mom two doors down, an international student, a new coworker? A warm spring day is the perfect time to ask someone over for a glass of lemonade on the back patio.