things stricklans do: books

Apparently, some Stricklans can go nowhere without collecting books.  Besides bringing several with us, Catherine and I have collected the following library while in Europe:

We have good reasons for each and every one of these, from "It's hard to find books in Russian even on Amazon for as cheap as these!" to "But we need a German dictionary, not just a translation dictionary, because I'm going to have to learn German for grad school anyway!" to "Yeah, but you need something in English to read when you're tired of doing your homework in German."  We really do.  Really.

It could be worse.  At least we don't collect troll dolls or cats or something.

things germans do, episode 3: der Romantik

Germans do Romanticism.  And by Romanticism, I mean the artistic and intellectual tradition, not so much the PDA thing (which, it appears, Germans do not do--at least not as often as Russians...)  This is the venerable Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  He was one of the first and most famous Romantics.  He was also German, and given the following evidence, I suspect those two facts are closely connected.

An older Goethe, who actually was trying to move past Romanticism.  Too bad for him everyone else still loved it to pieces.  Picture via Wikimedia.

The little biography of him that I bought tells me that his first great success, The Sorrows of Young Worther, was inspired by the angsty experiences he suffered as a young man when the pretty wife of his friend wouldn't pay him any attention.  Worther killed himself.  Goethe didn't.  That's good, because he served as the catalyst for a whole generation of poets and artists to find their inspiration beyond Enlightenment rationality--in emotion, in epic heroes, and in landscapes like this one:

things germans do special edition: das Einrad

Germans do halfbikes, too.  It appears that German enthusiasm for bicycles has mutated and produced a whole family of unicyclists in our building somewhere!

Not to mention scooterists and rollerbladerists.  And apparently a spatula.

They've been sitting there since we came, unmoving, forlorn... I wonder if the owners go around each other in circles while juggling bowling pins and flaming torches when they ride their one-wheels.  I wonder if they would notice if I took one out for a spin.

things germans do, episode 2: das Brot

Germans do bread, and they do it well.  Very well.  After a few weeks of silly ignorance, we finally bought a loaf of the good stuff, and we quickly found out why Germans will eat it at every meal.

things germans do, episode 1: die Fahrräder

Germans do bikes.  A lot.  Everywhere.  Or at least Tübingen Germans do, although I'm sure it's like this in a lot of places.  In front of the doctor's office, for example, you see where the patients have all tied up their horses--oh, I mean bikes--before moseying in for their check-up:

Giddyap, German pony!

Keep in mind this is the clinic, so I assume all of these people believe there might be something wrong with them.  And yet the bicycle is their conveyance to the cure.

But that's not all.  Apparently, even if you're leaving town, your bike is the way to go.  Behold the German equivalent of the airport parking lot (with free parking!):

o baby godzilla, full of grace

One of the things we find ourselves doing evenings here (since the modern world provides us with so much leisure time!) is watching German TV.  More accurately, Catherine watches German TV while I do something else, because I can't understand too much of it.  Unless, of course, she finds something that needs no translation. Like Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.  That one can pretty much speak for itself.  In fact, it might be even better if I don't know what they're saying.  Just take a minute and a half and see what I mean:

just yesterday's dream

Here's NASA's image of the day for On September 18, 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft paused in its mission to the stars to take this composite photograph. It was the first photograph in human history that pictured both the Earth and the Moon together but outside the orbit of either. It represented the triumph of human creativity, humility before the breathtaking limitlessness of creation, and the open horizons that lay before us.

Voyager 1 photograph, courtesy NASA.gov's "Image of the Day."

Voyager 1 is still going, and still sending back data. It's taken almost 35 years, but NASA scientists expect that it will pass the border of the solar system into interstellar space at any time this year. At that point, humanity can say that we have extended something of ourselves into the vastness of the universe, that we have made the first tiny steps toward understanding God's infinite grandeur. I suspect, however, that the majority of Americans might not see it that way. Space is boring, I guess, or at least a whole lot less pressing than the daily troubles our government makes for itself.  

But think about what's actually out there!  Think about it: we can have an experience something like Abraham's supreme vision of God's creation!