The Portuguese Ninja Turtle

Hello Friday Feel Gooders! As always, long time no bloggy, whaddayagonnadobouit-eh? As noted in the ole public forums, I’m still looking for guest writers, or suggestions, inspiration stuff or participants for upcoming projects. Let me know if you’re interested.

Back in 2009 I was in Vienna Austria and I had met a young man named Artur. Artur was from Portugal and had been traveling a bit longer than I had at the time. We ended up getting along fairly well and spent our time in Wien together and even travelled a bit into Italy. Artur was a peculiar little fellow. He had a clean shaven face and head, an olive tint to his skin and was a bit on the short side… let’s say 5”4. Artur also carried with him on the top of his backpack this pop up tent which was round and discus in shape. This little green tent on my short little bald Portuguese friend made him look oddly similar to a ninja turtle; in fact when we were wandering around the canals and waterways of Wien I pretty much decided to play that scenario as real in my head for fun, just a couple ninja turtles roaming around the capital city of Austria. 

Artur and I shared many lengthy stories and philosophical ideas in our few days together, it’s partly why we got along well I’d say. We each had a similar ideas about why we were out there; it was part discovery and partly to share what we had to bring to the table ourselves. Our connection was one of those moments where despite being ninja turtles on vacation, it was full of manly wisdom where we reassured our egos and stroked out faces with stoic confidence.

One of the things Artur shared with me I’ve always carried with me, as well  I have re-shared this sentiment many times in my subsequent story telling, is this. “…Matthew, everywhere you go, you get to see your language, you see, even out here away from home with all these strangers in a place you’ve never been; you’ll never really feel alone. Imagine how it is for me, Portuguese is not spoken here or hardly anywhere, I’ve been traveling for 3 months and I’ve not heard my tongue since I left home, that’s when you start to feel truly alone, when nobody can really hear you, talk to you”

The following video made me think of this immediately. It’s a bit overproduced but the sentiment is real. The idea I’m getting towards is imagine what it’s like to lose (at least to me) one of the most comforting things about life, being able to just simply interact with those around you on such simplistic things… do we take it for granted? Can we help someone feel more seen? I feel this really captures some of that emotion. It is an ad, but I think you’ll enjoy… it certainly warmed me a bit.  

The next time you see a strange ninja turtle man, see if he speaks Portuguese and see if you can’t make him feel a little more at home. 

Thanks everyone.