Passing through Paris!!
February 7, 2021
Growing up in the United States, it is practically impossible not to get some kind of learning about Europe. Depending on the context, this could create a nominal feeling, disdain, or a deep curiosity. For me, I have at least a slight degree of curiosity about most things….as I’ve gotten older…some of those curiosities have obviously intensified.
When I was working in Africa, a friend of mine once asked me “who was the president of Africa”….well, yes…I got a good chuckle out of that…but, in reality…Africa is spoken of as a whole…and mostly, the countries get ignored…as if there are no specific variations or dynamics. Thus, in these forays through Europe. I don’t pretend to know it all or to experience it all through a drive by. But, it is just another venture in a life-style of continuous learning.
Getting ready to land in Paris, multiple contexts are floating in my head regarding Europe – the history, the planning of cities, architecture, museums, art, politics, among other things. Yet, right from the start…I have to give a shout out to my fashionistas….Solaris and Dior right off the gate…
Tiffany & Co., Tod’s, Fendi, Moncler, Salvatore Ferragamo, Bottega Veneta, and…
and of course Prada (Shout out to Miranda Priestly)….
Most of these fashion symbols…well admittedly … they are lost on me, I’m still stuck on ‘the ‘Cerulean Blue’ sweater that I dug out of a box at a discount store that I’ve matched with a skirt I’m wearing to an upcoming hideous skirt convention’…. But, we all are who we are…
Once I step out into the street, most of my contexts disappear. For me, I don’t travel to grab a picture for the foto album. I am looking to absorb…
And, there is so much to absorb…something about the structure of the buildings and the stories that they hold…
like art in a museum when you have time to engage in intentional internal inflection…you find space for your own existence within the very thing that you are looking at…you aren’t looking at it…as you are now a part of it…
I’ve been through this area a few times…and have developed a certain familiarity. But, the future holds a time that I will meet…and I will do a much deeper dive…But, for now…I have another destination in mind…
If you live in Europe, I imagine it is easy to take these things for granted…just as in New York, por ejemplo, when transit and the ease of it is built into the culture.
I won’t use this as an opportunity to rant on the ‘transportation public policy issues’ of the day, simply that part of the absorption I am seeking…even includes catching a ride down the road…and the simplicity associated with it… 🙂
Sitting back in comfort, rolling out from Paris towards Alemania…there is the continued shift from observing towards absorbing…and being aware of the feeling…
These country sides have many a story…the lives, the development, the wars, the loves, the families…yet what is life maintains its absolute and its dynamic…
So many things of which we are not aware, yet we act as we know, ignorant to what we don’t know. Allowing the smallness of our minds to dominate. It can be a new orientation to adopt, and certainly takes practice. Yet, even just the smallest glimpse of that level of humility can make us stop and marvel at the flower blooming.
I have been through Paris a few times…and have developed a certain familiarity. But, the future holds a time, an experience in Paris, that I will soon meet…and I will do a much deeper dive. But, for now I have a Tanda in Saarbrucken that is awaiting me….and I it!!
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