Saturday, July 28, 2012

What is Beauty?

A guest blog by Aidan Cummings: Some people think that beauty is about supermodels and flowers and eyeliner. But it's not. It's simple, and not fancy and showy. It's just love and family, and support when you need it. Like for example, a whole crowd cheering a child with a disability as he crawls his way through a race. As our Iraqi friend would say, "that is soooo beautiful."

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Dom Cathedral

We had the chance  to visit Germany's "most visited landmark"-the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Cologne. (Officially the High Cathedral of Saints Peter and Mary.)

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I don't have a view camera so there is some perspective distortion as the tops of the buildings seem to lean imposingly.  But I actually like the affect.  It sort of fits the feeling of being in the shadow of the huge towers.

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Dom Cathedral

The day that we visisted Cologne was dark and overcast.  At one point, we had to huddle with forced intimacy in the doorway of a souvenier shop with other pedestrains as the sky opened and poured rain, then abruptly stopped as quickly as it began.

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Inside, the air was heavy feeling.  Aidan was tip toeing next to me and whispered that he didn't think that it didn't felt like a church should feel. 

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Supposedly the remains of the Three Wise Men
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While walking around the city we found the most cheerful little shop.  There was a bright colorful display in the window in the midst of this gray and gloomy city that drew us in like bees to a flower.  The best part was that inside we discovered a a huge selection of Shaun the Shaf merchandiseNow, Chloe loves sheep more than anyone I know, but we all love Shaun the Sheep!  I think we amused the very German shopkeeper with our giddy, childlike excitment.  (And, seriously, watching an engineer that excited about a child's cartoon is great entertainment.) We exercised great restraint though, and only came away with one small magnet.

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Musician in front of the great front doors
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The Silver Knight