Your mother and I recently took a vacation, our last hurrah before your
sister Quinn gets here, and also to celebrate mom’s 30th birthday. We
traveled to France for 10 days. We spent the first 4 nights in Paris, touring
the sights, sounds, tastes of the city. We moved onto Versailles for one night
in the Waldorf Astoria…. And I spend a months worth of grocery bills on a
single meal! Lastly our favorite 3 nights we spent in the Loire Valley touring
the countryside and Chateau’s of the region. One of my great joys in life is
traveling with your mother, going on adventures and getting away from the
harried pace of daily life.
During our stay in Paris we made a day trip out to the beaches of
Normandy, where on June 6th 1944 the Allied forces landed to begin
the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany. I almost decided not to make the
trip, it was quite a drive from Paris and I didn’t know if we would have the
time. I am so glad we made the journey though. We visited the battlefields and
saw where men battled and lost their lives, we saw what havoc mankind is
capable of, and what heroism in the face of death they are capable of.
By far the most moving moments were the visiting of the graveyards. The American
cemetery sits above the ocean, all of the plants are from America, and all the
graves face west, towards the home those men would never return to. The knowledge
that these men died for their convictions, to set strangers free and prevent
further human suffering overwhelmed me. I found myself welling up with emotion
over men I did not know, but men I nevertheless owed a debit to. One of the
inscriptions that moved me was “These endured all and gave all that justice among
nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace.”
One other note on something I did not expect. During our visit to
Normandy we were taken to the German cemetery. I had not anticipated, nor really
did I have any desire to see it however, I came away moved nonetheless. One
particularly moving inscription that I found put the cemetery and the men who
were interred there into perspective. “Until 1947, this was an American cemetery.
The remains were exhumed and shipped to the United States. It has been German
since 1948, and contains over 21,000 graves. With its melancholy rigor, it is a
graveyard for soldiers not all of whom had chosen either the cause or the
fight. They too have found rest in our soil of France.”
Wars end, the fire of hatred can grow to an inferno, but eventually every
inferno runs out of things to consume. I believe that was the case with the
German cemetery and world war II. The hard-won piece that followed was one in
which nearly every person on the earth had been touched by the war, and they
were weary from the toll it exacted from their souls. There was understanding
by soldiers that the men they faced were, for the most part, men like them,
under orders as they were, fighting for their country. Graveyards are moving
places, after the endless injustices and tragedies of war forgiveness is an
incredible thing, and really the only thing that can bring true peace.
There were many more moments from our trip I will remember forever.
Touring beautiful gardens and castles, eating exquisite meals and watching the
sunset over the Loire river with your mother. One picture which I will always remember
is standing in a field of yellow flowers with your mother. It stretched to the
horizon so there was only yellow meeting the blue of the sky, the air was cool
but not cold, and a breeze was moving softly enough the make it feel as though
there were waves and the flowers were the ocean. When some moments of
difficulty find me I will go back to that place, I will see your mother
standing there with another of our children in her. I will feel that cool air
and I will remember how vivid the colors were in that moment and nothing else
will matter.
I love you both so much, I look forward to having you with us for some of our adventures, and to the day you grow to be old enough to embark on your own.
