Ausländerbehörde

You can find beauty everywhere if you are looking for it. I stood in line for almost 2 hours today at immigration. Immigration. That’s right, I said it. For the first time in my life, I am fully at the mercy of governing authorities. And as an American, this is very humbling.

I took the U2 to the U9 and when I got off the train I began to follow them. The huddled masses. The people that for one purpose or another are trying to defect. Trying to make a home in some place other than where they were born. And I know we all do this for different reasons. For work. For relationships. For religious freedom. But I come for love. For the love of a place that I barely know. Someone said the other day that Berlin is a wonderful city for runaways. Someone else said that it is one of the cities of angels. Los Angeles being one and they couldn’t remember the third.

But I stood in line today with an American, a Russian, an Italian, a Spaniard and an African and her beautiful son. And in broken English we shared the time, the boy picking flowers, the ladies laughing, the man putting him on his shoulders. And we were all there for different reasons. Different situations, histories and goals. But as we stood there together we were the same. 

And it was so very beautiful.