John Y. Brown, III: The Party’s Over

Well, the trip is about over now. The trip of a lifetime, for sure, for my family.

We’d never before been on a cruise or to the Mediterranean. And had the great good fortune of doing both. For that I am grateful.

And, as with all family vacations, the best is yet to come. It’s my experience that the memory of the vacation always exceeds the experience of it. Not sure why it works that way, but it does. For us anyway.

We saw a lot and learned a little and may be inspired to learn a lot more as a result of our travels.

It’s a great big world out there. Stunning in it’s breadth and diversity. And yet no matter where you go, people are just people–far more alike than different. Just making do with different circumstances.

For our trip of a lifetime we touched Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

I hope—if I can distill my thoughts of this trip to a single hope–that we learned an appreciation of the roots of all Western culture in Greece. In Turkey, I hope we recall the roots of all human history–from the Biblical to the political– and that the deep divide at present between Westerners and Muslims seems harder to understand when interacting face to face with one another. And finally, from Italy—oh, Italy–I hope we learned just a little bit about how to live and love with greater passion. That’s Amore!

And, of course, perhaps our greatest blessing: Returning to a place that we have the extraordinary privilege of calling home! The good ole U.S. of A. With a new term learned along the way that describes both where we have been– and where we are going.

Bravissimo!!