The Last Days

The last day of "Sabbatical Travel" has arrived. It has been an amazing journey, visiting two countries and countless cities, meeting wonderful people and viewing incredible sights. I can't possibly begin to summarize this whole month, or even the past three days in Rome in just this posting, but let me just begin by saying it has been all that we ever expected -and then some more!

Where does one begin to tell the story of Rome? Is it told through the monuments and the obelisks that dot the city's piazzas, stolen symbols of the power and reach of the Roman emperors? Is it in the countless churches that seem to spring up from the middle of a city block, or are surrounded by frenetic traffic? Is it in the variety of languages one hears on the street as pilgrims and common folk push their way through crowded sidewalks, often spilling out onto the street, hoping to avoid being struck by a crazy motorbiker or taxi driver? Is it through the rich history of the Roman Catholic Church that has preserved both faith and priceless artwork through the centuries? It's all this and more.

To get to know a city and its pulse of living lets one feel 'at home' in a foreign place. At least as at home as a strenger can feel. After several days, the roads become familiar walkways, and you feel as if you want tot help those new arrivals who stand at the intersection, as you did just days before, search for your destinationon a street map. And occasionally you can point them in the right direction!

Rome is "the Eternal City" for whether you explore the Christian catacombs outside the city on the Appian Way as we did yesterday, or wander through a lesser known neighborhood church and are struck by the devotion of the faithful who stop in to pray to get them through the day and not to gape at the ceiling or side altar frescos, I have learned that despite the invasions of Visigoths or Longabards, the threats of Fascists, or the corruption of the early papacy, there IS something eternal here. It is what drew us back for a second visit. And yet there is still more of Rome than what we have experienced. I guess a third visit wouldn't be a bad option!

For those who encouraged me before we left with, "take lots of pictures," don't worry! You'll probably get bored somewhere just past Rapallo and the Cinque Terre!

As I began this post, I reminded myself - and you - that my sabbatical traveling will end this evening. In many ways I long to get home to the things we are away from - our kids and grandkids, friends and a great hometown. But I also believe that I can no longer look at life and living in the same ways that I have. I have been changed. Mark Twain once wrote, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness." How true that is. Or, as Chris and I saw on a poster at a book fair in Piazza di Popolo last night, "One who reads is a traveler."

It will now be another 12 days before we land in our own beds at home. There is some "housekeeping" things to do today before and after we check out from the hotel, like sending a box home with souveniers and other items no longer needed on this leg of the voyage, and finding a haircut for me! Tonight a flight on Air China will wisk us further around the globe to Beijing, where we will begin a vacation planned two years ago, long before the offered sabbatical leave. If we have been in interesting countries and cultures the past month, we can only speculate about the next adventure. We are excited to meet up with two other couples from Punta Gorda. They will be the first to be bored by the June experience travelogue. But they will also bring pieces of home with them. It will be marvelous.

There will be no blogs while I'm in China, but I will continue the sabbatical reflections once I reach home. Keep us in your thoughts, please, and may God's joy be yours.