Old Shoes - New Trip

Our 2006 visit to Anzio & Nettuno has forever changed how I think of this important day. Now this is the image that will always fill my mind on Memorial Day.

Later in the week, we were at market day in a small un-touristed town in southern Puglia. Upon learning we were Americans, an elderly gentleman pulled his shirt off; and grabbed my hand to have me touch the scar from the decades old gunshot wound on his chest. He wanted me to thank the family of the Americano Dottore who saved his life, although he had no idea who he was.

Then I remember my encounter with Piero, the bicycle shop owner in Gubbio, who told me about how the American soldiers were his protectors and idols during the war.

So, whatever we may feel about our government's motivations behind this war in Iraq we must remember this: In 50 years, there will be people who are also remembering the kindnesses they experienced from American soldiers.

There will be an old man with wounds that didn't kill him because an American doctor in camouflage saved his life.

There will be a 60 year old woman who can read and write, and owns her own business because when she was a child, my brother, Sgt. Johnson, gave her a pink Hello Kitty backpack filled with school supplies packed by kids her age here in America.

In a time when it is so politically incorrect to support this war, please don't forget today to reach out with support and thanks to one of our warriors.

We got back from our memory lane trip late last night.

I had a 7 AM meeting this morning.

So, not only did I not get my Sunday Slow Baking done, I also didn't get my trivia contest questions posted.

I'll post the questions this afternoon and not post the answers until Wednesday instead of tomorrow.

I'll bake this weeks SSB assignment at the same time I bake next weeks.

16 more sleeps until Budapest!

As you read this, we will be on a ferry, leaving this painfully beautiful country of Montenegro and heading for Italy.

It is July 4th. Few people on this ferry will have much of an interest in the significance of that date for these two travelers from the US. But they do understand very well the significance of freedom and national identity.

What I've come to learn about Montenegrins -- the people of the Crna Gora -- is that their national identity has survived all of the efforts of the world community to redefine them; to combine them with other nations for expediency; and to cow them into submission.

Along the way they have adjusted for survival. Yet the one thing they have never done is surrender. The crest on the Montenegrin flag is the eagle with upswept wings. It is their most treasured symbol of pride. Pride that throughout the years of successive dominations, the one thing they have never done, is lower their wings in defeat.

Montenegrins, no matter what national names they may have worn, are a fierce and proud and ancient race. The granite in their character matches the granite strewn mountains of their homeland.

Montenegro has produced statesmen, poets, artists, and more than a few villians. Their bloodlines run through the royal families of many of the powerful countries of the continent. Including Queen Elena of Italy, a woman who stood a foot taller than her husband, Victor Emmanuel III.

As a citizen of the United States, a country where we pride ourselves in our hyphenated heritage, I am in awe of these people of the Crna Gora. Their national identity is not only literally in their DNA, but it is in the DNA of their conciousness.

So to our fellow countrymen on this 4th day of July, have a wonderful holiday. If, like we, you find yourself in some other part of the world, we hope you will declare your nationality on this special day with the same pride that Montenegrin's declare theirs every day.

Keep your eagle's wings aloft.

Yesterday, in the store, one of our department managers gave me a big hug and said "I love you!" It was random, for no real reason. We were just having a great time.

She immediately blushed and apologized. She stammered, "Oh, my God, I don't mean in that way! I just mean I'm happy to have you back from vacation. We all missed you."

This led us all into a discussion about the words, "I love you" and what has happened to their use.

When did it become politically incorrect to tell someone with whom you are not romantically involved, or who is not a relative, that you love them?

When did we decide that the feelings of great affection we have for special people in our lives can not appropriately be called "love"?

I think this is a generational thing. Somewhere along the line, my generation (baby boomers) stopped using the words. Or at least we started being very stingy with them. This is very curious, don't you think? After all, we were the hippy free-love generation. What happened to us?

The younger, college aged, booksellers in our store commented that they tell their friends they love them all the time. I'm glad. I hope the continue the practice into middle-age.

Time is too short for me to put together the book I planned. I knew better. I should have done it the moment we got home from our trip. I waited too long.

Now, I must hurry. I took my pictures to the instant print store for 4x6 prints. I bought a scrapbook and I'm putting together an album now.

Tomorrow is Labor Day, but while everyone else is preparing for their BBQ, Dan and I will be driving to our friends house with the album. We've been told not to delay. Too little, too late.

Thank you Marta, for sending me yours. And thank you to everyone else who lit candles. I'm very grateful. Here are the photos I've collected. I'm going in reverse order of our travels.

ITALY

The private chapel at Borgo di Montemegiano dedicated to San Antonio di Padua and The Abbazia di Montecorona in Umbertide

The Tomb of San Francesco di Assisi and St. Mary Over Minerva in Assisi.

St. Augustine & S. Dominico in Gubbio

MONTENEGRO

San Nikola and San Trifone in Kotor

San Luca in Kotor and The Chapel of Our Lady of Salvation in the fortification wall overlooking Kotor and Kotor Bay

The Monastery at Ostrog and Roadside Shrine Near Ostrog

A Monastery near Vilusi and A nameless chapel near Grahovo

A Chapel in Cetinje and The Monastery of Piva

BUDAPEST

St. Stephens Basilica in Budapest and St. Mathias Church in Budapest

Shrine to St. Margit, after whom Margit Island in Budapest is named.

Thank you, Marta, for this lovely image of the candle you lit at the Chapel of St. Ignatius on the campus of Seattle University.

(I've developed the habit of posting my thoughts about each holiday. My 4th of July post came while on a ferry from Montenegro to Italy. Memorial Day was about my reaction to visiting the American Cemetery in Anzio. But, it was Kim's comment to that post, about the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, that started me thinking about this holiday. So I decided to post early. Maybe some St. Louisans will read it and decide to prove me wrong.)

Are the people of St. Louis going to show our veterans how little we care again this year?

In a month and a half, on November 8th, 2008, St. Louis’ annual Veterans Day parade will begin at the Soldiers’ Memorial. The veterans marching down empty streets will be surprised if they draw more than a few thousand spectators.

What is wrong with us? Are we so ungrateful that we can’t spend a couple of hours one Saturday a year to show a little appreciation for the men and women who have served our country? My guess is yes, we’ll continue to stay home in apathetic droves.

After all, we'll still be suffering from election fatigue. Half of us will be recovering from celebrating our guy’s victory. The other half will be crying in our beer and predicting the end of civilization as we know it. So 100% of us can use our hangovers as our excuse.

Coming just four days after the election, we won’t be expecting any politicians to show up, will we? They won’t need our votes any longer. The winners have secured their own political gravy train for one more term. The losers will be licking their wounds and pimping themselves out for nice fat consulting contracts.

And of course there is the whole war debate itself.

Is the anti-Iraq contingent so angry that they can’t distinguish between the actual war and the men and women who served? They give lip-service to “our brave troops”, but do they really mean it? And what about the pro-Iraq faction? You’d think they’d be out there proudly waving their Red-White-&-Blue, wouldn’t you? But, since being pro-war has become so unpopular how many of them are willing to stand front and center for their belief? They’ll just stay home to rake leaves or go shopping to beat the Christmas rush.

We can turn out by the hundreds of thousands to lionize our sports teams when they have a championship season. We can jam Soulard for a series of Mardi Gras parades that celebrate nothing more than what kind of foolish costumes our poor dogs are forced to wear -- or how much beer it takes to induce us to lift our shirts in exchange for some cheap plastic beads.

If you ranked the annual attendance at St. Louis’ major parades, from Annie Malone to Veiled Prophet, I’m willing to bet that Veterans Day would come in dead last.

As far as I can see there isn’t even a website devoted to St. Louis’ Veterans Day parade, or an organization sponsoring and promoting it. It appears that it’s being handled by someone working it the Board of Public Service – part of the bureaucracy of St. Louis City government. With no citizen’s organization behind them doing the real organizing, what is the chance the city of St. Louis can getting its act together enough to promote any event, much less a big parade?

But in case you want to contact the person in charge, her title is Special Events. You can find her at the Board of Public Service. I'm sure she could use your help, or at least your promise to show up.

If every municipality in the St. Louis Metro area adopted just one side of each block of the parade route and promised to fill it with spectators, just think what a view our veterans would have as they marched down the middle of the street.