Some of my favorite moments as a tour leader are watching the expressions of our travelers as they first encounter some of these wonders. There is a particular corner where I like to skip ahead just a little so I can savor the expressions as the group rounds the corner and sees the magnificent Eiffel Tower towering above them in all its glory.
In spite of competing before practically empty stadiums (stadia, for you Latin students) and arenas, and braving the hassles that come with Covid caution, the Olympic athletes performed admirably. One particular story caught my attention: the US and Iran facing off on the basketball court.
So this week, one year later than planned, the Tokyo Olympics kicked off. If you want to see David Durham turn into a total softy -- if you want to see my heart warmed and my spirit energized -- show me a combination of the beauty of nations and cultures coming together expressed through creativity and innovation.
As I write this, my wife and I are at Dallas Love Field on a layover, headed back home to Nashville from our adventure to the Northwest. (I wrote about our first ever Amtrak trip here.) We feel full, sated -- and yet wanting more. The trip was so full of discovery, of learning about a part of the country where we had never spent any time to speak of, and of reconnecting with friends that are now dearer than ever.
Her name is Emily.
A very English name, although her father is Chinese. And in spite of dad's nationality, in spite of the fact that he was standing right there when she was born, Emily's birth certificate says she is white.
Most of us in the West are aware that humans have been eating insects for thousands of years. And we know that they are still eaten in many parts of the world today. In fact, about 2,000 insect species are eaten worldwide. So why are we still so squeamish about the idea of ingesting creepy crawlers ourselves?
A couple of weeks ago, I told you about my Syrian friend Omar, who escaped with his life from the Assad regime some time in 2017. To refresh your memory, we met Omar and his then girlfriend on a trip to Athens, which Becky and I took with a team hosted by Servant Group International to better acquaint ourselves with the crisis caused largely by the Syrian civil war.
In case you missed it, March 20 was the annual International Day of Happiness. This little-publicized event was established by the UN in 2006, but the first International Day of happiness was first celebrated in 2013. It coincides with the World Happiness report…and guess which country came out on top…again.
I had a conversation yesterday that will stick with me for a long time.
If you've been reading/following me for a while, you know that Becky and I had our lives changed when we made a visit to Athens four years ago to see up close just one of the crises caused by the Syrian civil war: the influx of thousands of refugees into Europe. Athens was the epicenter.
For years I've been telling people why I love the word "sincere" so much. As the story goes, in medieval Europe, a potter or sculptor would use wax to cover over any flaws in the vessel or sculpture once it was dry. Being a language freak, I was fascinated to learn that "sincere" meant "without wax" -- "sin" ("without" in Spanish) "cera" ("wax"; "cire" in French). Being truly sincere is being "without wax", with no attempt to cover one's flaws. What you see is who I am.
If you're in the US, this is Super Bowl weekend. But if you're in New Zealand, it's Waitangi Day, the national holiday.
One year I decided to visit a small museum in the Ardèche area of France which documents much of the history of the Huguenot community there. One display featured a mannequin family of Huguenots, all dressed, to my surprise, in blue denim. It was a bizarre juxtaposition of what looked like 80's stone-washed denim set in the 17th and 18th centuries.
