As we continued on our trip we ventured into Venice. Now I know I will probably make a lot of people mad, but to be honest with you Venice was not my cup of tea. I could have been happy doing a one hour tour of Venice, learned about the history and gone back to the mainland. But...
I did learn about how Venice was built on top of trees that have petrified
under water. It was interesting to see the canals, and to know that there are no cars, no firetrucks, no ambulances - those are all done by boat.
The gondolas were interesting. Several of our students decided to take the ride. It was a little expensive but they wanted the experience.
This next part is a little personal so I hope you will not mind my detour from the "history" of our trip. You see, Tuesday May 29th was a nerve wrecking day for me because my daughter was back in Tulsa, Oklahoma having a C-Section for our second grandson!!!! With a 7 hour time difference only meant that I would have more "daytime" to worry. As I have mentioned before I find it hard to go by a Catholic church without lighting a candle, and for some reason I kept coming back to this church so I went inside and in the picture below you can see the two candles on the left - one for my daughter and one for my new grandson, with prayers that they would have wonderful lives, and be happy in the warm love of Christ.
All went well and I have an absolutely Beautiful Grandson named Jason. The next day I was on the bus heading to Switzerland when I took out some paper and wrote the following note:" Life is good today. Yesterday I became a grandmother for the
second time to a beautiful Jason Riley.
Today I dipped my toes into the Adriatic Sea, and left
Venice behind. As we traveled north west to Verona we
could see the Alps, snow capped - and on my IPod I listened
to Enya and all of a sudden life was wonderful and peaceful.
My kids are asleep, and my life is fine.
The next song was "String of Pearls" by Glen Miller
- thought of WWII and the American Soldiers that had to
fight their way north from Italy to Germany - 60 years later
we sit on a bus, congested on a freeway knowing our
freedom and the cost our soldiers paid. I hope my
kids are able to appreciate their sacrifice."
1 comment:
Debbie, this is a great reflection. Taking your students to these sites is the best kind of history lesson! And when I think of little Jason and his big brother, like you, I can't help but think about the sacrifice for freedom that was made by so many folks during World War II. For these little boys it will be just a remote history lesson, kind of like the Civil War was for us. But Jason and Kevin's great-grandad served in the Navy in that conflict, and only a boot camp injury kept their great-great Uncle Jim from being one of those soldiers fighting their way north from Italy to Germany. A few days ago I stood at the grave of my great-grandfather, who fought in the Civil War and died in 1901. Thank you for your reflections on how the past informs the present. I hope people never totally forget the lessons of history!
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