Onward and Upward

If you ever need a place to stay near the Munich Airport, maybe I recommend the nearby Premium Inn? A short bus ride from the terminals, best bed ever, good pizza at the bar and best price all trip—63 Euros! A happy ending to a happy six weeks on this most marvelous continent. Here’s what I posted in Facebook. 

 

And so a farewell toast to Europe with my favorite Austrian beer. Six memorable weeks in the Dordognes, Paris, London, Oxford, the Cotswolds, Vienna, Salzburg, Linz and now the Munich Airport. A grand pleasure to meet old friends and make new ones, to bike, hike and wander and also to teach, to feel touched by the exquisite aesthetics of these European cities, the beautiful countrysides, the uplift of art and architecture and cultivated cuisine, the kindness of strangers and shared concern with just about everyone I met about the unravelling of the world and the shared commitment to help stitch it back together. 

 

Tomorrow it’s off to Ghana and a different kind of uplift from extraordinary music, dance and song and the exuberant welcomes the Orff Afrique students always feel. On this Juneteenth day, the Civil War is raging again back home, but I’m here to report that healing forces are everywhere. A toast to what has been and to what will come.

 

There were some lovely comments:

 

• Thanks for letting us all travel vicariously through your posts and keeping hope alive.

 

• Thank you for your positivity, Doug.

 

• It is to the benefit to so many during this stressful global time that you share yourself and your wise thoughts. Thanks for your vision of healing. It does not go unnoticed.

 

These meant a lot to me to read. When the unimaginable happened back in November, I didn’t know how I would survive it emotionally. I’d been there for four terrible years, living reactively and in a constant state of outrage and despair. 

So this time I made a vow: “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” Still speak out at workshops and on this blog/ social media, show up at protests, write letters or make phone calls—no head in the sand ostrich escapes. But focus on positive action, not negative reaction. Play defense as needed but keep playing the offensive game of aiming for the three-point baskets of love, fun and compassion, focusing on my great teammates more than the opposing team’s cheating and rough play. In short, living well is the best revenge. 

 

Of course, I have my days when I hunker down in the dark tunnel of despair—don’t we all? But as the old African American ring play suggests (Little Sally Walker):

 

“Rise, Sally, rise. Wipe those cryin’ eyes. Turn to the East, Sally, turn to the West, Sally, turn to the very one that you love the best.”

 

Onward and upward!