Under the surface, life is good

I guess it is common knowledge: in The Netherlands a lot of us live below sea level. I was born in Amsterdam, and my life started on a level where fish swim in most parts of the world. I often wondered if that has an impact on you through life. My star sign is  Pisces, by the way, but of course THAT is a coincidence.

Sometimes I wonder whether the Dutch are so tall in general because they have to compensate for their surroundings, and that we all want to be as close to the sun as people that live on mountains and hills. But I am not tall, feel plenty of sunshine and kind of like being so extremely down to earth.

Here, under the surface, there is a community just like any other. But yes, my house is below sea level and the garden where my son grows his school vegetables, used to be a lake. My home town Amsterdam is built on poles to prevent it from sinking even deeper, and we see dykes and dunes as natural parts of our wildlife: a created environment that looks as stunning as the Alps, the Appalachians, you name it.

If you  think about it, life online is also a bit under water. Beneath a flat screen there is a world of knowledge, entertainment, friends and foes that mirror anything you can find in real life. I enjoy that world, too. It allows me to learn, engage, meet new people and find old friends, and to travel to cities all over the world to attend meetings and events. It is a world with no boundaries and no time zones. Real time, real life.

So is that why I enjoy being a researcher, finding stuff that lies below the surface? Digging up material that is hidden so deep that it would take an archeologist to find it in Google or any other search engine? Maybe. But not just that.

The thing for me about research is that I can find all  these little treasures and then give them away. Whatever I find out about people, science, leisure, tech, generations, associations, communities, meetings and events : I pull it out of the water, give it a good look and turn it into something that will hopefully give it a Dutch touch. Literally, since I try to find good events for Amsterdam .

And I love doing that. Nothing more rewarding then seeing  the sharing of ideas and thoughts you helped to accommodate. People from all cultures communicating, learning and doing business. Often with different languages (who speaks Dutch anyway?) but with a common goal. Via new ways of connecting people and old ways of connecting people.

I am happy to be the invisible part of it. Because life under the surface is good.