Photo gone

I realized the other day that the photo I had with my blog was now 5 years old and felt that it should be changed. I found a great photo taken on a bridge over the Seine in Paris in October 2009 so I cropped my wife out of the photo and my backpack on my lap. However, the way the world is now it just seemed too pretentious to me. After all I was only there 10 days. However, the look on my face was the kind of trip it was.  Very happy.  I complained about going on this trip a lot beforehand because I had wanted to take my two daughters now 21 and 14  and my wife to England and Scotland and Switzerland, as I had taken my 21 year old with me when she was 10 years old and my mother when she was still alive to where my Mom's parents grew up near Glascow, my grandmother in Clydebank and my grandfather in Ayr nearby before they got married and immigrated to become citizens of the U.S. around 1910 or so. But since my youngest daughter was only in diapers my wife decided not to go on that trip because she felt my daughter was too young to travel that far.

So, I had been very disappointed not to retake my trip and show my wife and youngest daughter all the neat stuff my then 10 year old and I  had found in Fall 1999 when we had been there before both in England, Scotland, Switzerland and Germany.

So, finally since wisdom is the better part of valor I let the 3 girls have their trip to Paris.  I was amazed both in the joy of Paris (It literally is more fun than Disneyland and probably the happiest place I have ever been since 9-11) (At least it was last fall in 2009). And since this money also included about 4 days in Nice and a rented Mercedes there to drive to Monaco in.

To get even a few days outside of the misery the U.S. has been going through in various forms since 9-11 was wonderful. And since my wife and I both lost our last parent (one each) in 2008 it was the first time I saw my wife really smile a really deep smile and laugh really deep once more. It was good to be alive in Paris. (It was my very first time there but I hope it is not my last).

So, sometimes giving into others  wishes creates a really good outcome. In this case it was one of the best surprises of my life.

Also, as an intuitive I remembered walking around and living in Versailles in past lifetimes. The memories made me feel sort of trapped without the kind of life and rights that I have living in the U.S.

Whoever I was then I always had enough money but there was this feeling of oppression that I don't have living in the U.S. I think my memories are of the 1700s before the French revolution in France. Life was unbelievably different then than France now.

Because France now today resembles in some ways the U.S. and the rest of Europe except for all the historical buildings which generally are older than those in the U.S. However, the people in France and England and Scotland and Switzerland and the rest of Europe seem very much (except for some of the accents) pretty much like people you meet everywhere all the time in the U.S. And even now I have friends in the U.S. with German and English and other European accents that were born and grew up in Europe.

So, I can see why Americans like to go to Europe because they feel fairly safe there and it seems like a quaint but different America. In some ways it is like visiting your grandparents home. There is all sorts of stuff that reminds you that they lived way before you were born, but that you somehow are all a part of this as well. It is a part of your heritage. So Americans often feel about Europe like it is the home of their ancestors, their grandparents, and so Europe is often family to many or most Americans.