And a Brand New Jahr...
I sit here around thirty minutes or so before the new year thinking about what I have accomplished, where I have been, and the changes I have made in my life. Like everyone else this time of year I am reminded of what I want to accomplish, where I want to go, and the changes I want to make to my life.
This year has been an amaying experience for me. I put a roof on a house, taught at a college, traveled to the middle east, learned a new language, and now on the eve of the new year I am assessing the old in former East Germany. In a place that historically has seen so many challenging things I feel very close to the troubles that have been.
A few nights ago I was dancing in an "East German" dive bar to fifties, sixties and seventies Americana and Ska. The people were real and the energy was great. The wallpaper on the wall was hung over cinder blocks of the cold war when beers were a few pfennigs. Times they are a changing. Now people from all over Berlin dance there together with foreigners and each other. It was nice to hear Dick Dale and Italian seventies music mixed together with Elvis and Specials. I met people from all over the globe that live here and are also traveling through. This place is the re-intigreation of two societies after many years of seperation and tragedy.
I see the same things forming in the middle east that once formed here. A wall dividing two peoples sharing the same land. Politicians fight over the right to inhabit or control the area but in the end only the people suffer. The middle east will come together someday like Berlin has been rejoined. I don't know when but it will happen I am sure.
As I type fireworks and party horns are heard from all around. The streets are already full of debris of the noisy celebration that is about to ensue. I have spent my time here with Westerners from every imaginable. I have heard for almost five months from everyone who can speak how much damage our country has done to the trust of the world. I am tired from the stories of ignorant American travelers. I want everyone to believe in one world.
The recent tragedies in the Indian Ocean brings sorrow but gives me hope for humanity. We can all pitch in and help out when fellow humans suffer a great loss. Should or could we have done more before it happens? Yeah sure and hopefully this loss will bring us closer together. Why were tourists rushed out of the country while citizens were left for days with no support? We should love one another.
The ruckuss is getting louder now and I must join the crowd. I love you world and I wish you a wonderful new year...
This year has been an amaying experience for me. I put a roof on a house, taught at a college, traveled to the middle east, learned a new language, and now on the eve of the new year I am assessing the old in former East Germany. In a place that historically has seen so many challenging things I feel very close to the troubles that have been.
A few nights ago I was dancing in an "East German" dive bar to fifties, sixties and seventies Americana and Ska. The people were real and the energy was great. The wallpaper on the wall was hung over cinder blocks of the cold war when beers were a few pfennigs. Times they are a changing. Now people from all over Berlin dance there together with foreigners and each other. It was nice to hear Dick Dale and Italian seventies music mixed together with Elvis and Specials. I met people from all over the globe that live here and are also traveling through. This place is the re-intigreation of two societies after many years of seperation and tragedy.
I see the same things forming in the middle east that once formed here. A wall dividing two peoples sharing the same land. Politicians fight over the right to inhabit or control the area but in the end only the people suffer. The middle east will come together someday like Berlin has been rejoined. I don't know when but it will happen I am sure.
As I type fireworks and party horns are heard from all around. The streets are already full of debris of the noisy celebration that is about to ensue. I have spent my time here with Westerners from every imaginable. I have heard for almost five months from everyone who can speak how much damage our country has done to the trust of the world. I am tired from the stories of ignorant American travelers. I want everyone to believe in one world.
The recent tragedies in the Indian Ocean brings sorrow but gives me hope for humanity. We can all pitch in and help out when fellow humans suffer a great loss. Should or could we have done more before it happens? Yeah sure and hopefully this loss will bring us closer together. Why were tourists rushed out of the country while citizens were left for days with no support? We should love one another.
The ruckuss is getting louder now and I must join the crowd. I love you world and I wish you a wonderful new year...
posted by chris @ Saturday, January 01, 2005
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