Connected to the Past

I tend to view the past with a sort of disdain for the ills that human history has inflicted upon the world. Exploitation being first and foremost on this list, followed by horrible amounts of death and destruction... but I've realized, in fact, that I have need to connect with history. To feel a sense of collective meaning that extends beyond knowing things, but feeling. There are impactful moments that continue to resonate with me.

1) Each time I listen to Gregorian chant albums I feel drawn back into a time-line that pulls me into my European ancestry. I feel the pull of the music against the stone walls and against the cathedral halls. I feel the weight of the religious words swirling around me, and I feel their holiness and their questioning somberness in an unexplainable world. Kyrie, eleison! Lord, have mercy on us.

2) Walking around in the city center of Braşov in the heart of Transylvania I felt the age of the buildings take over me as the scene took me in. The Biserica Neagră (Black Church) dominates the cityscape and you get drawn in by its simultaneous timelessness and deep, aged majesty. I did not wish to leave Braşov and I could have spent all day, and many days in the awed presence of that building with over 600 years of history surrounding it.




I have more connections to make, and I am being pulled so strongly back across the Atlantic with all of my being. Nothing is coincidental about this. No, this pull comes from the most logical and emotional aspects of my being. A return to my ancestors' homeland is in my future...