Perpetual Change

Back to School

Well all over Europe, students went back to school last week, and the last days of summer were great. But almost immediately it turned cold and gray, and since I have been off for almost a month, it seems like I am headed back to school too.

This time of year always makes me wax philosophical, about where my life would of taken me if I had made different decisions at the end of my summers. For most of the last 10 years, my life has oscillated through 8 month stretches, creating a feeling of being on a perpetual summer vacation, of which the location changes. I have a collection of random thoughts, but unfortunately, the urge to play the last few days was greater than to work, so you will have to wait till I get back from my trip. I also have a couple "day in the life"s in the works, as I was told by a few reputably sources that I was becoming to distant from my readers.

But for now, just one thought. As I have been biking around and learning about Czech this summer, I have often been impressed and amazed with how many castles, chateaus and manicured fields there are. Now I am not sure if it is from German influence, of which their is much in their history, or innate culture, but I realized that the whole landscape (in what I would call German engineering efficiency) has been molded into a giant fish and wildlife preserve. The lakes and fields of Czech were the hunting and summering grounds for much of central Europe for centuries and when all the ethnic Germans were kicked out after WWII (the Lichtensteiners alone owned huge regions of the entire country), the land was taken by the state, but often in truly enterprising fashion it was taken over by individuals. So today, although not every trout lake and deer stand are on public property, the Czechs have continued an amazing history of natural resource management, and on my bike rides it is not unusual to see someone doing yard work - way out in the countryside.

posted by jjs @ 2:43 AM