Posted 2003-3-24 by AGF

On my final night in Zurich I had dinner at a restaurant near the hotel.  ‘Table for 1’ as always. About halfway into my dinner a table near me was celebrating a birthday and once the cake was brought to the table the servers and everyone else broke into ‘happy birthday’, something we have all experienced. But the version of happy birthday they sang I was not expecting, at least in Zurich.

The servers in this restaurant were singing the happy birthday version by Stevie Wonder. He wrote the song for Martin Luther King Jr. when his birthday became a national holiday. ‘Wow, I never thought I would’ve heard this in Zurich’ I said aloud and the man sitting next to me responds ‘heard what?’  And I explained him the importance of the song, whom it’s dedicated too and its message.  

His name was Christoph and he was having dinner with his girlfriend Eve.  He was a youth counselor, and he was currently teaching his students about the Civil Rights movement in the US and MLK’s role in it.  Once again, I could’ve been seated next to anyone in the restaurant and on this night, no one could’ve been celebrating, 

Within minutes our tables were connected, and a stranger was making two new friends.  My final night in Zurich having dinner with two people I just met talking about segregation, inequality faced by African Americans, MLK and the civil rights movement in the US all because someone was celebrating a birthday, you can’t script this.