Spain seen from a swimming pool

During this trip, Teo has begun to connect with Spain through Córdoba, its history and his roots. But that day I realised that getting to know a country does not always happen inside a monument.

Sometimes it happens in a swimming pool.

We spent the day with the family at Aquasierra, the water park in Villafranca de Córdoba. It was hot, and there was water, play, conversation and that cheerful noise that comes with summer days.

For me, though, it was more than just a day at the pool.

At one point I looked at my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law and my nephew and thought:

I felt their affection in the little things. In a conversation, a joke, a glance and that way of being together that needs no grand speeches. It was a simple kind of love, but it was everywhere.

— ◆ —

“How can it be that nobody gets upset?”

While we were enjoying the day, Teo was watching everything happening around him very closely.

In that pool he was discovering something that might seem completely normal to us, but was new to him.

He saw people hugging and kissing. He saw two friends playing, dunking each other's heads under the water and coming up laughing. He saw a young man pick up his girlfriend and throw her into the pool. She came up laughing, and the game went on.

He also saw parents playing with their young children, tossing them into the water with trust between them, while the children came back to the surface asking:

Teo watched in surprise.

His question made me look, too.

To him, some of those gestures might seem rough if viewed outside the bond and shared understanding of the people playing. Yet there, they were understood as expressions of trust, affection and complicity.

There were no sour faces or arguments.

There were adults playing like children. People talking, laughing, hugging and sharing the space with an ease that was completely new to Teo.

And that was precisely what made it beautiful.

Nobody seemed afraid of looking silly. Nobody felt obliged to be serious all the time. For a few hours, everyone was allowed to play.

— ◆ —

The invisible codes of affection

Teo has grown up in Japan, with different social codes. Not with less affection, but with other ways of expressing it. That was why this very physical, noisy and spontaneous way of relating to others raised so many questions for him.

That day I realised that cultural differences are not found only in food, architecture, language or history.

They also appear in the distance we leave between our bodies; in the way we hug; in how loudly we speak; in how we make a joke; in the value we place on touch; and in that invisible agreement that helps us understand when a gesture is unwelcome and when it comes from trust.

It is not about deciding that one culture is better than another.

They are different ways of relating to others and expressing emotions.

Teo has grown up in Japan and carries Spanish roots with him. In a way, he belongs to both places. Perhaps that is why he can look at Spain from the inside and the outside at the same time.

That fascinates me.

While I saw a couple playing in the water, he wondered why neither of them got upset.

While I saw a family laughing, he was trying to understand where all that trust came from.

And as I listened to him talk, I thought that perhaps this trip is not only about showing him my roots.

It is also about letting him teach me to look at them anew.

— ◆ —

Looking at Spain anew

Through his eyes I am rediscovering scenes I had taken for granted all my life. Simple things I had never needed to explain, but which also tell the story of who we are and how we live.

That day I felt my family's love deeply. And at the same time, I saw my son gradually understanding a part of our way of being in the world.

Not through an explanation.

Not through a book.

But by watching people play, hug, laugh and love one another.

For a few hours, that pool became a little window onto a part of Spain. In it, Teo discovered that affection can also be noisy, physical, playful and completely spontaneous.

This trip keeps filling our treasure box.

That day we added a new treasure: a summer day, a wonderful family, plenty of laughter and Teo's surprised gaze as he discovered that, in some places, even adults are still allowed to play like children.

— ◆ —

Related links

• Previous chapter: Difficult paths, precious memories (The full article is unavailable in this English edition.)

• Aquasierra · Water park in Villafranca de Córdoba

• Beni on Instagram

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