MY AMERICAN FRIEND FROM “SOMEWHERE ELSE” (PART II OF II)

JANUARY 17, 2020 –

Undaunted, he worked doggedly for admission into another Polish university, less selective than Jagiellonian University, but nonetheless, boasting a top-flight history department.  He labored under the tutelage of a legendary scholar/professor, and then made a second attempt at Jagiellonian University.  He passed.

(In a “small world” aside, my wife and I and her parents happened to be visiting Kraków in 1985, when Jurek was a student there. One day 30 years later, Jurek and I were visiting in my office, when he noticed on my credenza, a photo I’d snapped of a blind Roma street musician back in 1985. Jurek knew all about the guy!)  

As a student of history, I relish conversations with Jurek that dive into the deep and complicated past of his place of origin. One day I introduced him to what is probably the definitive history of Poland from an Anglo-perspective—a two-volume work written by British scholar, Norman Davies.  Jurek wasn’t familiar with it, but after paging through my set, his interest was so fired up, he ordered his own. This gave me the same thrill that would occur for the eager student who introduces the revered professor to new information.  

Jurek’s interest in history derives from firsthand and family experience. He knows his parents’ and grandparents’ stories from World War II (at great risk to the family, his grandmother hid Jewish fugitives fleeing through Jurek’s family village). He himself came of age under communism, and the hardships and nonsense of that era are etched indelibly upon his memory.

Soon after I finished reading Russell Shorto’s brilliant book, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America, I ran into Jurek in the lobby of our office building. Our close rapport allowed for spontaneous quips and comments. Our exchange went like this:

“Eric, hello!” he said ebulliently.

“Jurek, how ya doin’?” I said in hearty response.

“Good, really.” He stopped, inviting more conversation.

“Ya wanna know something, Jurek?” I said.

“No, what?”

“I now realize that you’re more American than I am.”

“Nah, what do you mean? How can that possibly be? You are from here, you were born here, you speak English without an accent. What are you talking about?”

I then told him about Shorto’s book. Jurek understood exactly what I was talking about. 

I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity enough to read about “Shorto’s book” (http://www.russellshorto.com/book/the-island-at-the-center-of-the-world/), which I trust will then inspire you to read the book itself.  It gave me a whole new perspective on America and how we define ourselves—or more precisely, from an historical standpoint, how we should define ourselves.  If you follow through on Shorto’s thesis, you’ll understand that the quintessential American comes from somewhere else and speaks English with what sounds like a “foreign accent” to the ears of us who grew up here.

That would be Jurek, my quintessentially American friend from “somewhere else.”     

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© 2020 Eric Nilsson