When at last the war you’re in becomes too much to take and you’d rather be right than alive, comes the uprising. All of us have been occupied by forces that are hostile to what we believe in. Or maybe to situations that are untenable. Be it a relationship, a job, a place… we all … Continue reading
Category Archives: Travel
The first day back
I’m going to blog about my Marshall Memorial Experience writ large… one day, one month and one year after returning home.Of course, I’m sure I’ll have burbles of thoughts and insights in between, but here’s where I’ll take a holistic view of its impact on me (and with any luck, the world). Not driving for … Continue reading
If everyone is looking for it, then no one is finding it
Americans, generally speaking, don’t think about culture in the same way as Europeans. For us, culture can be about creating something new and a process of becoming. As individuals we think about our heritage, sure. But we don’t linger on the culture of our forebears. Like the kid on the shoulders in a crowd, we … Continue reading
The persistence of (food) memory
Whenever I want to take a trip back to my roots, I think about my grandmother’s kitchen. I inherited a dog-eared cookbook from her; it’s got Cajun recipes galore and looks pretty good; however, I doubt she used it. Not even once. Someone probably gave it to her. She cooked from memory mostly, or from … Continue reading
Skopje, you’re speaking so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying
If I had started my life in Skopje instead of Philadelphia, I would have been born in a republic called Yugoslavia. I would probably have Slavic Macedonian ethnicity, but may also have been of Albanian, Turkish, Roma, or Serbian descent and that would define my culture, education and sense of place. In 1991, if this … Continue reading
Dipping into the pathos of Salonika
In 1916 a writer for the National Geographic was struck by Salonica’s seeming indifference to the needs of the tourists who came on the trail of its past. “So little indeed has she yet taken in, as the remainder of Europe has so profitably done, the possibilities of a past that I was unable to … Continue reading
Along the sun-drenched roadside
I wanted to name this post “Thessaloniki, I love you but you’re bringing me down,” but then I thought Rosencrans Baldwin could have issues with that and, besides, I’m on a trip to promote transatlantic cooperation so need to focus on the positives. Right? Right. One day in Greece and I’ve already experienced wonder, disgust, … Continue reading
Listen, Germany!
Although many decades have passed since the end of World War II, the last big war fought on Western European soil, it could be argued that memories in Europe run long and deep about the past, particularly as relates to why a totalitarian state should be avoided. Almost to a person, I’ve heard from people … Continue reading
Kinder culture… über alles?
Germany is the birthplace of kindergarten, although the locals here say that the word itself is dated. These days, Kita is the term of art and the term stands for Kindertagesstätte. This name implies that the institution also provides daycare and all-day kindergarten. I visited a Kita in Lübeck run by a huge NGO called … Continue reading
The meaning of marzipan
The northern Germans probably don’t realize they share a food passion in common with the southern Europeans. Long ago and far away, intrepid seafarers discovered new (to them) lands and brought home with them all sorts of goodies (and baddies, really). In Lübeck, a trading port in the Hanseatic League, merchants found good use for … Continue reading
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