Sounds like a wonderful trip. Can't wait to hear your stories. We had planned a similar trip in May, but have postponed because of the move. We will get there....
Jeff, I love the way you tell a story! As someone who has wide gaps in my knowledge of history, you always make me smarter. I love the photos you share and as I look at them while listening to your story, it brings it all to life. I especially appreciate that the Germans don’t just remember - they made it a point to take responsibility. Thank you!!
Well said, Jeff. I go to the battlefields for remembrance and to attempt to understand the ground. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve been moved to tears on more than one occasion.
You might remember Season 5 of the West Wing. Former President Lassiter has died & Jed Bartlet flies to California to give the eulogy.
Afterwards, the widow invites him to Lassiter's study/bedroom. Lining the walls are shelves on which rest small cork-capped bottles, each one containing a few measures of soil & labeled with the location where the soil was collected. Lassiters's final words in a letter to Bartlett explained why he felt the need to travel to all the places where American men & women shed blood, to witness, and this parting line: "Go listen to Lincoln."
Bartlet does: the closing scene is of him walking up to the Lincoln Memorial in the cold of a dark DC night - he stands there gazing up at that seated statue while the camera pans back ....
I picked up an acorn when I visited Troy. Illegally imported a plant into the USA. About six months after my return, much to my surprise, four tiny worms crawled out of tiny holes. I ended their visit promptly and had a nightmare of a crop plague that I had invited. I guess your illicit stone is sterile. :)
Jeff, I can relate. I once walked the entire Northern & Southern lines at Gettysburg. I stood where Joshua Chamberlain directed his men on little round top, and the point from which General Pickett ordered his troops forward into massacre & infamy. I walked the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln delivered his short address in praise of those fallen troops, and America's 'new birth of freedom.' The ground at Gettysburg resonates with haunting memories of those July days in 1863. It's far better to be present on those sites than read about them. Thanks for another fine piece.
Thanks, Byron. I know exactly what you mean about Gettysburg. The battle didn't make sense until I walked the site. Vietnam is on my bucket list. Have you been back?
Such a thoughtful tribute, Jeff. With a heart heavy with reverence, I understand the impulse to pocket that seemingly ordinary stone, a tangible link to the extraordinary sacrifice made on that hallowed shore. It's a silent witness, a piece of the earth that absorbed the tears and the blood of those young men, a physical manifestation of their fleeting existence. To carry it is to carry a sliver of their story, a reminder of the fragility of life and the immense cost of conflict. Your journey to the battlefields is a pilgrimage of remembrance, a solemn act of bearing witness to the echoes of a past that must never be forgotten. The stones, the beaches, the cemeteries – they are not mere landscapes, but sacred grounds where the whispers of the fallen linger, urging us to cherish the preciousness of every moment, and to strive for a world where such horrors are relegated to the annals of history. We must honor. And we must never forget –your powerful voice of reason and wisdom will make sure of that, my friend.
Beautiful, evocative, emotional, Jeff. And the one-sentence construction is perfect, just like waves on waves, ebbing and flowing.
Thanks, Debbie. I owe a lot to you-know-who. Love your reference to waves.
Sounds like a wonderful trip. Can't wait to hear your stories. We had planned a similar trip in May, but have postponed because of the move. We will get there....
Thanks, Carol. The stories will find their way here.
Jeff, I love the way you tell a story! As someone who has wide gaps in my knowledge of history, you always make me smarter. I love the photos you share and as I look at them while listening to your story, it brings it all to life. I especially appreciate that the Germans don’t just remember - they made it a point to take responsibility. Thank you!!
Well said, Jeff. I go to the battlefields for remembrance and to attempt to understand the ground. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve been moved to tears on more than one occasion.
No shame in that. I don't know how anyone who knows the history could walk the fields and not feel that emotion. Thanks, Paul.
You've done it again, Jeff.
Splendidly crafted!
You might remember Season 5 of the West Wing. Former President Lassiter has died & Jed Bartlet flies to California to give the eulogy.
Afterwards, the widow invites him to Lassiter's study/bedroom. Lining the walls are shelves on which rest small cork-capped bottles, each one containing a few measures of soil & labeled with the location where the soil was collected. Lassiters's final words in a letter to Bartlett explained why he felt the need to travel to all the places where American men & women shed blood, to witness, and this parting line: "Go listen to Lincoln."
Bartlet does: the closing scene is of him walking up to the Lincoln Memorial in the cold of a dark DC night - he stands there gazing up at that seated statue while the camera pans back ....
You have a great memory; it deserves two hearts. That scene is so appropriate to this short piece. Thanks, Diane.
25 years later that TV series stands head & shoulders above all the rest. I'm glad I was able to add a good memory to your good memory
I picked up an acorn when I visited Troy. Illegally imported a plant into the USA. About six months after my return, much to my surprise, four tiny worms crawled out of tiny holes. I ended their visit promptly and had a nightmare of a crop plague that I had invited. I guess your illicit stone is sterile. :)
All is forgiven.
Careful, you could be deported for doing that today. Contraband acorns...
Jeff, I can relate. I once walked the entire Northern & Southern lines at Gettysburg. I stood where Joshua Chamberlain directed his men on little round top, and the point from which General Pickett ordered his troops forward into massacre & infamy. I walked the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln delivered his short address in praise of those fallen troops, and America's 'new birth of freedom.' The ground at Gettysburg resonates with haunting memories of those July days in 1863. It's far better to be present on those sites than read about them. Thanks for another fine piece.
Thanks, Byron. I know exactly what you mean about Gettysburg. The battle didn't make sense until I walked the site. Vietnam is on my bucket list. Have you been back?
Such a thoughtful tribute, Jeff. With a heart heavy with reverence, I understand the impulse to pocket that seemingly ordinary stone, a tangible link to the extraordinary sacrifice made on that hallowed shore. It's a silent witness, a piece of the earth that absorbed the tears and the blood of those young men, a physical manifestation of their fleeting existence. To carry it is to carry a sliver of their story, a reminder of the fragility of life and the immense cost of conflict. Your journey to the battlefields is a pilgrimage of remembrance, a solemn act of bearing witness to the echoes of a past that must never be forgotten. The stones, the beaches, the cemeteries – they are not mere landscapes, but sacred grounds where the whispers of the fallen linger, urging us to cherish the preciousness of every moment, and to strive for a world where such horrors are relegated to the annals of history. We must honor. And we must never forget –your powerful voice of reason and wisdom will make sure of that, my friend.
YOU are a poet, my friend. Thanks for your lovely comment, Dennis.