Last Day In Vienna

I leave tomorrow morning after five weeks here.

It's been a dark winter, not much sun, but nevertheless I've had a great time. The sun shines in my heart, thanks to B, her family, and her friends.

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It's odd, living in two dreams. Two lives: one here, one in America. Now that I'm retired, I can spend more time in Europe when I come here. It feels strange---strangely good---not to have to turn around after two weeks and go back home. Talk about a dream; the feeling always was, "Was I really there? Did it really happen?"

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B found an article in the New York Review of Books called "What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy?" It's adapted from a speech and is a little bit of a read, but an interesting read. And though it's not the main point of the article, one can't help but noting how present-day US thinking was shaped in some part by the theories and ideas of a small group of Austrians...

You have to step outside your ordinary thoughts and experiences once in a while, even if it's uncomfortable to do so. Maybe especially because it's uncomfortable. What tends to happen, otherwise, is that certain crucial questions never even get asked, and certain ideas are never even discussed. I've noticed a closing of the American mind in recent decades. A greater polarization.

If 1968 was tumultuous, what is 2018 going to look like?

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Read a book called "Three Cups Of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Subtitle: "One man's mission to promote peace...one school at a time."

Maybe 2018 will look a lot better than we might imagine it, thanks to people like Mortenson.

B and I have been reading this book aloud to each other. Buy a copy and read it to someone you love, then give the book away as a gift.

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So, I'm flying home. As in previous times, this blog is now dormant. Until my next visit abroad.

Cheers,
The Bicontinental Bastard