Riding With the One that I love

 October 7, 2024. I'm on the bike tour with Fat Tire Bikes.  In front of the Red Government Building off of Alexanderplatz, I see an Israeli flag flying beside the Germany and Berlin flags.  When asked, our tourguide notes that this is the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack in Israel, and Germany stands with Israel. He draws our attention to the fact that the flags are all flying half-mast. He said that earlier, the Ukrainian flag was flying.  I notice Israeli flags flying liberally around town. I text my friends in the U.S.: "this is a one-year anniversary.  All over Berlin there are Israeli flags.  All flags are flying at half-mast and there are images of the hostages posted around town.  Big protests and huge police presence."   The most significant display in support of the hostages was in Babelplatz.  A square about twenty feet by twenty feet is fenced off with chain link fencing; inside is an arrangement of empty chairs....

Germany has a dark chapter of its history.  Events surrounding the Holocaust are difficult to learn about, to connect with, to see, and to feel.  This history is hard to live with, I'm sure. Subtle and forthright, planned and happenstance, creative and simple, many diverse kinds of markers in Berlin serve as place holders and reminders for the heavy history from World War II. The omnipresent monuments and memorials are well-integrated into the fabric of the urban landscape and yet still stand out for their creatively jarring messages.  Popular guidebooks such as Rick Steves' book report that the Germans are "taking responsibility" for the turbulent past that is the responsibility of their forebears. Reading this in advance of our trip caused my eyebrows to raise. I've found current cultures frequently deny culpability and certainly do not claim responsibility. Questions loomed in my head: How do the German people move forward while acknowledging their past? How do...

 In a post I wrote about our experience in Japan, I described how our guide identified five important principles of Japanese behavior within the culture. In Prague, the tall, dignified buildings -- many of them Medieval -- were topped with statues of the saints and apostles.   I saw an interesting parallels of both in Berlin; I could not help but think this was quite a commentary on the similarities and differences in these cultures.   On the tops of the reconstructed buildings in Berlin (reconstructed because the tour guide on our "Fat Tire Bike Tour" reported that between 75% and 90% of all the buildings in Berlin were destroyed in World War II), statues loomed overhead.  We stood in the platzes of lore in the Mitte area of town and gazed up at darkened figures silhouetted above. These figures appeared on the government buildings, the museums, and cathedrals. "Those are the original figures," the tour guide reported as we looked skyward in Babelplatz near...