Peach Versus Coconut

I am a peach! Some that know me may agree, and some may disagree, but according to a book that I am reading, Beyond Chocolate: Understanding Swiss Culture, I come from a peach culture. You see, the peach is soft and sweet on the outside, with a tough center that is harder to penetrate. From a psychological perspective, the book explains, peach people are very outwardly friendly, calling each other by first names, chatting with strangers, making personal comments or asking personal questions, offering help or assistance without being asked to do so, and just generally more open...to a point. The hard pit on the inside is the private side of us that is reserved for the more intimate relationships with close friends and family.

Apparently the Swiss are more like coconuts. The tougher boundary is on the outside. They address each other by last names, while polite, they are not exactly friendly, they avoid personal comments or questions and feel that if you chit-chat, it is insincere. They will not assist you, even if you appear to be struggling, unless you ask for assistance. (I have seen this, it's true.) Even if you work in the same office with someone, you are their 'colleague,' not their friend. Once the outer surface has been penetrated, and you make it to 'friend' status, they are warm, loyal, life-long friends in which the relationship never needs to be questioned.

These are just generalizations, of course. There are peaches and coconuts everywhere, and plenty of hybrids. But, as a culture, I can feel the truth of this analogy as I try to build a new life here. How does a peach make it in a world full of coconuts. As I encounter coconuts on a day to day basis will my soft flesh become bruised and battered until there is nothing left but a hard pit with some faint remnants of a sweeter life? Will my thin skin toughen up enough to survive the rough exterior of the coconuts? Will I try to become a coconut, rejecting the genetics of my culture? Will I find other peaches or hybrids that are easier to rub up against? I wonder. With Geneva being, by conservative estimates, 40% foreigners, maybe we could just make a nice fruit salad. I just hope I am not the nut that suprises you when you take a bite.