What endures? Aside from Italian architecture, a lot of which dates back to the Middle Ages and looks amazing in the Twenty-First Century thanks to a culture that values its history and visual beauty, I would say that this trip reminded me of the enduring strength of friendship.
Renaissance building in Lucca
Back in Paris after a week in Tuscany, I met a friend for lunch at "Le Petit Cambodge" in the 10th, in Paris, a small restaurant that happened to be the target of a horrible shooting two years ago, before the terrorists headed down to the Bataclan for more horror. At first I thought, why are we meeting for lunch at a place that has such a morbid history / But the fact is that Parisians eat and drink and socialize on terraces when the weather allows it. The outside sidewalk spaces are filled with people chatting away into the night. Le Petit Cambodge is a popular neighborhood place, filled with people of mixed ethnicity, mostly young. While waiting for my friend to arrive, I couldn't help but listen in on the conversation at the table next to mine, where they were discussing philosophy. Just when I thought nobody was doing that in cafes anymore...What can humans control? What can humans not control? (the body is the first answer that popped into my mind, but the man talking began with time...a male/female divide?)
Things that endure: cafes where people gather over a meal and a drink, and talk, laugh, share the ups and downs of life, take a break from the daily drudge, watch the world go by.
No comments:
Post a Comment