Winter Pictures between Black Forest and Sydney
I am walking with my grandson through the streets of Newtown, an urban suburb of Sydney. It’s our time together, just the two of us, on the way to the LEGO Store at CBD, the central business district.
He is five years old and joins my wife and me every two years, together with his parents, on the long journey to Sydney to visit his aunt, his uncle, and now also his little cousin. This is already his third time in Australia.
This year, he experiences it much more consciously, with meaningful preparation and planning. It is a long and far journey from Germany.
Today we have time to talk, and we explore what is on his mind.
“Grandpa,” he suddenly says, “this doesn’t feel like Australia at all.”
I’m surprised and ask, “What does it feel like then?”
“Like Oberndorf.”
Now I’m astonished. Oberndorf is the town in Germany where my parents live. Visits to his great‑grandparents are often combined with a few vacation days.
Oberndorf lies at the edge of the Black Forest. There are outings to the railway museum in Schramberg or to the Fossil Discovery World in Dotternhausen near Balingen.
And here in Sydney, we go to the Taronga Zoo or to Bluey World in Brisbane.
For him, the differences between these worlds are not that big. He sorts places by relationships. Oberndorf = family. Sydney = family. So both places fall into the same category: places where he belongs.
I see the differences: architecture, culture, climate, language. He sees patterns: “I walk through the streets with Grandpa,” “We visit people who matter to us.” These patterns are stronger than any geographical distance.
For him, it is normal that family is spread across the globe. He experiences globality not as a concept but as everyday life. And he feels at home here, in an expanded sense of belonging.
I see all of this as a gift, and I am proud of his aunt and uncle, his parents, and a little proud of us too, because we have given him a sense of security that reaches across continents.
And now I’m curious: Which patterns shape your own inner map of the world?
