Reliving "il gran viaggio" (7/3/02)

Life went back to normal for us very quickly after we came home from Italy, but last night I realized that the trip may actually have done me even more good than I had realized. Our friends Barney and Cindy Madsen had us over to their home in Provo for dinner -- she made lasagna with Italian bread and a salad, all worthy of the Grotta Guelfa in Florence, or at least close to being so; and then they looked at our pictures from the trip -- all 208 that we have in our album, which of course does not include the one roll we have not yet picked up from processing. We, of course, provided enthusiastic narration. After we got home, I did not get to sleep until around 1:00; I wanted to relive the trip and listen to Puccini arias on my CD player. Earlier in the day I had stopped at Pettey & Brantley to pick up the files for today's trustee's sales, and while there I sort of absent-mindedly spun their globe, stopped it when Italy came into view, and marvelled that I actually have been there. I have been fortunate to live in a time when international travel is commonplace, and note that as recently as the start of World War II, many of those Americans who would later serve in the far-flung theaters of conflict had not even been outside their home states. But I don't think I will ever lose my own sense of wonder at such experiences.

I know I have often remarked that I would never want my worst enemy to have to struggle through life the way I have, and just in the past year or so, I have felt it all really starting to wear me down. But I believe in an afterlife, where all the scales will be balanced and the losses and disappointments made up to those who are faithful; and the trip was a reminder that even in this life, we can still receive at least some of that compensation.

Love,

Garry