Spinning a Moravian January

Note: this blog takes a bit of the reflective turn. For the sake of those who are easily distracted, (possibly from bad writing), I've inserted pictures to make your reading perhaps more interesting.
In terms of this Blog, we've tried to let the pictures make most of our comments thus far on this adventure... which I think is wise. Also, we've been fairly positive in our reporting of our life here. A good friend asked me soon after I got here what it was really like. I think he had read the Blog and thought that there might be more latent commentary. Isn't there always another thread to our lives? I mean perhaps, in the most simplistic terms, we spin things... either positively or negatively. (I said simple. ...but that is the best place to begin).

So what is the real story of our adventure here? As if I should come out with a book "The untold dark Lynchian underpinnings of a small Czech village". Lynchian is a reference to David Lynch's TV show, Twin Peaks... a small town in the NW with many dark secrets. The show actually reminded me of the small Iowa town that I grew up in. At some point I realized that Norman Rockwell's paintings were also a spin, as much as the clothes we put on in the morning. If the putting on of make-up, clothes or cologne isn't giving a spin, I don't know what it is. Some of us use to joke about how on Friday nights when one goes out and sees the possibilities of the evening, it often turns out looking much different in the morning, especially in florescent lighting. Spin. I suppose if you think about it, bars/pubs excel at providing what make-up, clothing, and cologne would cover... dark lighting, imbibing substances that conceal or embellish and a sound track to make all "seem". Have you ever woken up the next day, and the magic of the night before has evaporated. Humans spin. This is the tricky part. Is the morning after more real? Careful. Spin just might be more pervasive than you realize. It's best to know you're spinning, otherwise you get taken for a ride unaware and this seems to spawn disappointments. Perhaps it's wise to enjoy the ride.

So where am I going? It's January in the small town of Moravske Budejovice. Our lemon of a car, an example of how not to buy a used car, is a constant reminder of my limitations. Interpretation: We've misplaced the fifth gear in the transmission. It's no good; I've looked everywhere for it... so I'm letting a professional look for it. (Please don't now insult me by thinking that's not how a transmission really works, that something goes missing... that it's rather a mechanical result of something breaking or wearing out. ...I mostly know, just trying to 'spin' it humorously. This is what I do when frustrated with such things, even though it doesn't come off well.)

Perhaps more to the point, I think it would be dis-honest for us to tell you that every waking moment here has been exotic, inspirational, that we have no regrets, and that this is the best thing ever and we never want to leave. This is our Blog... it's our experiences related so that our friends can hear about our life and get a picture or two of how we're doing. I elaborated on the idea of spin simply because this is half the battle. There are days when we must spin it well for our own sake because we are struggling. There are days it would be hard to spin it badly because they are that good. I think the Blog is a recounting of those experiences that are positive in their own right and we have enjoyed them.

But I ask you - who completely uproots their family, sells their house, leaves their friends/community and moves to a foreign country... one where they don't know the language...and only for a year? Oh yes, there have been moments I have questioned this wisdom... and still do. Was this wise? But I tell you there are just as many moments that I can affirm what we've chosen. This isn't really the point, though it might be important to say. I agree with Aristotle that determining a "happy life" might best be done at its end, as may be the case with this adventure. But the point now is to let you know that being here can't be all glorious moments. This is life, everydayness sets in alarmingly so. To be honest, spin is important, but it is also important to acknowledge that there are times I'd rather be elsewhere. The Fulbright commission warned us of the struggle...we actually had a class on it. I know our Czech counter part has struggled. I know that everyone here as well as those back in the US who are part of this program struggles. In a word, I think the biggest struggle to this entire endeavor is summed up in the idea of 'comfort'. It's just not about missing your lazy boy recliner. It's about the discomfort of the constant unfamiliarity and truly a sort of alienation. That is - of being an alien to this culture. But it's not the big moments that one feels this... you can't stand in front of a cathedral or castle and feel this discomfort, at least as easily. In those moments you encounter something that is outside yourself and that suggests its own significance. If you face it, your discomfort can easily be overcome by grandeur or the ominous. For instance, we went to the nearby town of Trebic the other day to see the UNESCO persevered Jewish quarter. This small section of town was where the Jews were designated to live in the middle ages by the local non-Jewish authority. ...that is until the late 1930's when they were all... uhmm, "exported" and then of that community only 10 survived. In these moments, one forgets his discomfort and is confronted with something that indeed is far more significant than personal feelings.

But these moments of confronting something significant outside of yourself are not most of the moments. Everybody knows the quite, sometimes dull moments. These next series of pictures are the result of having lots of downtime on our hands. I entitle this series:

"Stopping by Billa on a Snowy Day"

The treacherous, icy walk!

Frozen tundra

Color in the landscape - must be something commercial.

It sure is...

Got to pay for your cart. If you bring it back you get your refund.

See, shopping is a family event here.

Best make for home. Too much excitement for one day.

See below, these "Potraviny" shops dot the neighborhoods. They are the local grocers that existed during the communist era. Old School.

Sometimes going to Billa is all we got. It's not all Prague and Vienna.

This whole thing, this whole adventure.... what is its good? Why would one do this? I think some see it as insanity. I think we have to go back to the Fulbright quote that explains why one would do this.

"The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy - the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately. The simple purpose of the exchange program...is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. The exchange program is not a panacea but an avenue of hope..."

Senator J. William Fulbright in The Price of Empire, 1989

Ok, this gets it partially right in terms of where I'm going. I don't have such a political agenda, though I do support this idea. But I surely do like the social aspects. I realize that how one defines those terms is exceedingly important... just go on my ride for a while. (that is the problem of being with academics/intellectuals... it is also their grace, but it makes saying simple things difficult... and it is often the case that these simple things should be called into question. But it is equally important to grant one latitude and to gain a sense of how they mean things. For those who critique never do so from a privileged place... and that is the essence of not bothering your fellow with the spec in his eye.)

Judgment, ...someone once said, quite avidly, that all judgment is bad, it separates and alienates. Don't ever tell a philosopher this... for it is quite nonsensical. For one thing, issuing a judgment about judgment is problematic. (lol) Judgment makes relating to anything possible. This is a 'coke' and I like it. I prefer it to 'sprite'. why? don't know, but it makes my ordering at the restaurant easier. But the kind of judgment we use to think about the other... that is, when we judge human beings, it is more tricky I think. I think what the "someone" above should have said was that in terms of the social, a certain kind of judgment can separate and alienate.

I can see that this diatribe is quickly getting me into a morass...

There are certain type of judgments that elevate those who pass them while at the same time reducing the other. When this happens, we perhaps not only lose the possibility for compassion and sympathy, but I think we lose part of ourselves. For if there really is something questionable about the other, it might be best to first recognize our own crappulance. ...a word I borrow from Mr. Burns.
But of this project and what Mr. Fulbright would desire from it: it is empathy we desire, to see the world as others see it. Traveling, getting outside your comfort zone has a good. Not only as an experience for our girls, but for us old dogs as well. ...I must confess, I got comfortable in the US. This quite surprised Heidi I think who always thought of me as the adventuring type. True, I like going on these grueling bike tours, that push some of my comfort limits. There is not a bike trip that I've been on where I didn't at one point say to myself, "Why, ...for the love of pete, why have I done this for a vacation?" For I have a love of comfort. I like a nice bed, in its own bedroom. I like my furniture and I like turning on the t.v. and watching something in a language I can understand. Plus, I had a house. It's where I kept all my stuff. It was mine and this was comforting to me.
Coming to the Czech Republic was about going out of those comforts. It was truly about discomfort. But it is about the rewards (one hopes) that come from going beyond one's boarders. I am reading The Hobbit at the moment. I feel as though I can relate to Bilbo. There are no dragons here to slay, no golden treasure hordes, no magic of that sort. But The Hobbit is a wonderful story of one who had to be pushed out of his comfort zone in order to discover something more about himself and his world.

I suspect some will not understand this line of reasoning... or the supposed good in the idea. I'm not sure I can explain. I have often of late seriously asked if this is still a sound idea to me. I suspect that it still is. Perhaps it can be likened to the 2nd or 3rd day out on a bike tour. It is in these days you ask yourself why. There is a great risk in these adventures. You sacrifice a lot to get there, then you realize that the discomfort that you may have been expecting is quite real and you ask yourself the good of it. There is good. There is a lot... you have to see it, seek it... and sometimes, damn it, you just got to spin it!