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Germany

Last week I went to Germany.  I flew out of MBS Sunday afternoon, made a connection in Detroit, then to Amsterdam, then finally to Hanover, Germany.  On the Detroit to Amsterdam flight I thought I was going to watch 3:10 to Yuma and Into the Wild, but the video system wasn't working properly.  It would play for 15 or 20 seconds, pause, and then start playing again at some other point in the film.

In the Amsterdam airport there was a guy reading Stephen Colbert's book.  I spotted it by the red-tinged pages.  As I got up to board the flight to Hanover, I told him I had the book with me in my backpack but haven't started it yet.  He said it was funny, and we shared a moment.

Scott, David, and I got a car to drive from Hanover to Bomlitz.  On the drive, I tuned to an English-language radio station out of the UK.  They were talking about a father who jumped from four stories with his 6-year-old son and younger daughter.  His marriage was in the process of breaking up.  The man and his daughter survived.  The boy died of massive head trauma.  It's not like I'm not used to hearing terrible things on the news, but for some reason (probably because I was so far away from my kids at that moment) that story really got to me.  I started trying to imagine myself in a state of mind like that.  I imagined how terrifying it must have been for kids for their dad to do what he was doing.  I wondered if that guy had anyone to talk to...maybe his wife was his only friend.  Maybe there were other people who knew the state he was in but didn't know what he was capable of...and didn't reach out to him.  I was convicted by a desire to be someone who takes the time to talk to people in crisis.

It was raining in Germany and obviously hadn't just started because water was standing everywhere.  We stayed at the Hotel Forellenhof in Walsrode.  Most of the week was spent in a conference room or eating meals.  No site-seeing.  Almost no pictures.  Below is a photo of the hotel room  and of me having dinner in a hole-in-the-wall bar.

Friday afternoon we drove back to Hanover and then flew to Amsterdam.  We spent Saturday night at a hotel at the airport and then flew home the next morning.  On the flight back I watched 3:10 to Yuma, The Beach, and Balls of Fury.  All three were enjoyable, but surprisingly Balls of Fury was the best of the three.

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Comments

I'm glad you made it home safely. That was a scary story you heard about with the father. It does remind us that we all probably need to be more open to being there for others or just being a listening ear when someone needs it.

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