Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia looks like nature’s Photoshop. The lakes shimmer in breathtaking shades of turquoise, waterfalls tumble as if gravity had just invented itself, and wooden boardwalks float above the streams like invitations. It is the kind of place that makes you say every few meters “wow”, “amazing”, “incredible”.
When we reached the lake station to hop on the ferry to the other side, a huge line greeted us. In front of us stood a happy and chatty group of Spanish-speaking retirees. Then a second wave of about a dozen more companions approached.
The woman in front of us invited them to join her. To justify this queue invasion, she declared with authority, as if she owned the park, “Todos Juntos,” meaning “We are all together.”
There are two human values that almost always ignite our inner Hulk when violated: respect and fairness. Break one, and you feel the twitch. Break both, and even saintly grandmas could flip a table.
Neuroscience confirms this: the amygdala flares, your primitive brain grabs the wheel, and suddenly you are in what Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Daniel Kahneman called System One. I call it “Airplane Mode.” No WiFi, no rationality, just pure survival signal bars.
Afraid of missing the boat, I summoned my entire arsenal of Duo Lingo Spanish and declared: “Disculpe Señora, no todos juntos. Nosotros estuvimos aquí primero,” meaning “Excuse me ma’am, not all together. We were here first.”
She started to argue in Spanish, but the group intervened. Then a kind retiree gentleman, José-Angelo, stepped in. In broken English, he explained that they were a group of retirees from Argentina who travel together every year.
He apologized for the confusion and generously invited us to move ahead of his group.
The tension melted.
We started chatting. José-Angelo confided that he had skin cancer and had forgotten his sunscreen. We offered ours. That small gestures flipped the script: confrontation became connection.
Soon, we were laughing with the group. Instead of “us versus them,” we became part of the “Todos Juntos tribe.” For that brief ferry ride, we belonged to one joyful and inclusive circle of simply humans.
Disrespect and unfairness almost closed the door to human connection. Kindness and generosity opened it wide.
By the time we crossed the lake, we had shared stories, sunscreen, and created an unforgettable lesson: strangers can become companions, proof that while disrespect and unfairness may trigger us, kindness and generosity heal and connect us faster than SPF 50.
