Life: Idiotropic

If any of you have ever stepped off of an airplane after a transatlantic flight, then you know the nauseous, overtired, achy, just-got-hit-by-a-semi-truck feeling associated with the word "jetlagged." Some might refer to this by saying, "I feel dead," and indeed, one might think by the pale, drawn, corpse-like appearance of some jetlagees, that they are on their way there.

My mother, upon arriving in Dusseldorf after a 12+ hour flight from Portland, did not look jetlagged. She looked irritatingly refreshed and beautiful (I never look that good), but she did feel a bit tired. So, sweet, considerate daughter that I am, I took her to a cemetary that morning.

WHAT?!!!??!?!?! Is that your reaction? Well, it might have been seen as a really cruel joke, but Tiara was singing with her class at the Margraten American War Cemetary at 11 for a Veteran's Day ceremony.

Due to some interesting navigation by our GPS, we got there right as it was starting. Both the Canadian and American anthems were sung, then some brief introductions, a shorter speech, and then the presentation of colors and wreathes and books of poetry done by elementary students. The half-hour ceremony closed with songs by both Af North Elementary and GK Elementary schools.

(As it was ending, I was thinking... I drove ALL OVER THE NETHERLANDS for this??!?!?!? And, as it turned out, the kids weren't even really assembled in a nice manner, but clumped together off to the side with the onlookers, so I couldn't even get a good photo of her singing, so, yes -- I drove 2 hours round-trip to attend a 30-minute ceremony during which I got a profile shot of my daughters head among a sea of tweenish heads that will be about the size of a pin-head in a standard 4x6 photo. Hey - the upshot is that I can rightfully call her pin-head now... she'll love that!)


When the ceremony was over, the classes began the "peace walk" around the perimeter of the cemetery. While they walked, Elise and Luci gathered large maple leaves from the ground and handed them to mom. The grass was dewy and reflected the sunlight very beautifully. The day was perfectly crisp autumn with a cloudless sky and a clear view of the Limburg valley below.


As the students returned from the quiet walk, they were each given one long stemmed rose to place by a grave. The boys humorously all sniffed the roses while the girls seemed indifferent to them. Tiara thoughtfully placed her rose at the foot of a cross of a man from Oregon. I turned to gather up Luci and Elise who were hugging the white marble crosses and we went home.

If it wasn't for the ceremony today, I would have forgotten about Veteran's Day. The weather was perfect though and the cemetery is in a beautiful part of The Netherlands in green hilly farm country, so even the getting to and from was special. On one narrow street a beautiful horse stood above us just on the edge of a grassy ledge looking out. It was one of many photo-ops untaken.