I’m on a plane right now, half way from Zurich and heading to Washington Dulles. I just spent about 4 days in Switzerland.

I don’t come to the Confederation Helvetica very often and so each visit is a reminder of impressions from the one before. I have decided that I really enjoy Switzerland.

I love the Swiss people’s relationship with time. They are known for their expertise in measurement of time and they make such beautiful timepieces.

However, the fact that the trains run so close to schedule is the result of more than just knowing the hour. There’s an intimate influence of time in Swiss culture, both and awareness of it’s passage and the desire to control it. The Swiss preserve their history, and show up for meetings at the exact designated hour. This all seems very right and proper to me.

If that were not enough, the Swiss seem to be masters of national identity. They know who they are, and who they are not. They are European in geography and culture, while maintaining independent government, economy and currency. Most impressive to me is how so many of the Swiss folk I encountered this week switched from Swiss German, to English, and then perhaps to French or some other tongue. They are collectively a plethora of polyglots. This, more than their horology, seems to be their zeitgeist.