Sabbatical Lessons

Lesson 1: We live ’picture-perfect’ California lives, buta one year journey outside our collective comfort zones, to struggle against new obstacles and to challenge ourselves in new and exciting ways, can be incredibly refreshing. 

  • Life is simpler with fewer choices
  • Once you are an outsider you will have empathy for the outsiders you encounter
  • Italians are warm, welcoming, witty and wise, and to borrow a joke I heard recently —always look like they just had sex 
  • They don’t judge their wine by how much it costs 
  • Soccer is still for boys
  • If you gain too much weight, you can’t fit in the shower
  • Cigarettes are still a big business
  • There’s no shortage of confidence and bravado - even an old Italian crossing guard thinks he has a shot at your wife
  • Meals are not to be ‘worked on’, but savored over hours of discussion
  • I saw more old people in a day than I do in a year at home
  • Dressing nicely isn’t just for special events
  • Everything works, but only part of the time