Tuesday Blues

So I finally received a call from an acquaintance of mine from Cincy who's traveling the world right now. He's in Berlin and has been here for the better part of a week or more. After blowing me off pretty much that entire time, he rang me today. And I answered (no caller I.D. here, LOL). So Andy and I met up with Brendan (oops, did I mention his name?) and we had an interesting time. We went to the Reichstag (you've already heard so much about my great adventure there on Sunday) and to the Jewish memorial. That was really highly interesting.

First of all, the memorial itself is quite interesting. It's seriously cool yet understated. Secondly, I find it so trippy that in a country once led by criminals who tried to eradicate the Jewish people from the planet, that this memorial (fairly large) would sit within the sight-line of the German capitol building, in the German capitol down the street from Hitler's Berlin bunker. Everyday, if they want, German federal legislators can look down upon the memorial. Also interesting was the number of young children and adolescents running through the memorial (although you'll have to take a look at the structure to have any idea what this means, think labyrinth). On the one hand, this seemed so sacrilegious. On the other, however, this seemed like a natural artifact of time. Just as time has little respect for the sanctity of life (and of the body itself) as we decay in graves, so too do younger generations, with little first-hand knowledge or memory, lack the respect of serious places like this memorial. It was not just at this location where this blithe treatment of history was on display. The same was true of the Marx/Engels memorial, the memorial to Checkpoint Charley, remnants of the wall on display at Potzdammer Platz, etc. It seems to just be the nature of young people. But I'm certainly open to other interpretations on this one.