Here, found on the internet is the poem that most closely reflects how I felt after Birkinau Could Have by Wislawa Szymborska; translated by Stanislaw Baranczak & Clare It could have happened. It had to happen. It happened earlier. Later. Nearer. Farther off. It happened, but not to you. You were saved because you were the first. You were saved because you were the last. Alone. With others. On the right. The left. Because it was raining. Because of the shade. Because the day was sunny. You were in luck - there was a forest. You were in luck - [View Full Entry]

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Impressions of the Psychodrama Conference: which is the reason we are here. Eva gave her workshop for 50+ people on 'roles not played.' The Conference theme was 'The Garden of Roles'. In keeping with this, Eva led the group in a inner meditation of two personal 'gardens'. One of reality...your present family and professional role..who you are in it. And a garden of possibility..wherein might be treasures, opportunities. She induced a very satisfactory reverie followed by sharing in groups of four. One amazing challenge for an international conference: the languages are German, English, Romania [View Full Entry]

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A note from Eva: Oh to be married to a man who spells Bremen, Bremman! All four of the famous town musicians in an uproar! What's a little German girl to do? He already said that he's an American, I guess I knew that before... Also, a slight emendation to the Jewish-Freud story. It's a complicated set of feelings for me. This lady was an 85 year old bundle of Berlin energy, a real ray of sunshine. She arrived out of breath, with bags, trumpeting her arrival, her understanding that Alan was sitting in her seat, her delight that she could [View Full Entry]

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This becomes an inner travel more than I perhaps expected. In Hamburg, Eva taught a group of supervisors of people giving palliative care...they are often disappointed when the meaningful, neat and peaceful end of their patients is not possible. Eva role-played Death..not as an atagonist, but as a natural ending of life...whose nature was misunderstood and resented (at least this what I understood her to have depicted)..the group got sympathetic to Death, at least less rejecting. In Bremman, we visited Annalie, writer, teacher, social activist and health educator, and again the talk was of pal [View Full Entry]

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Sunday and sitting in the Hauptkirche St. Peter listening to the Bach; Mass in G Minor with chorus and orchestra. Church filled with worshipers...sound filling the space, particularly the horn seems to carry a pure feeling with the voices of choir and congregation. A sense of a cultivated religion. My thoughts go back to a Good Friday mass at at Penitente church in the mountains above Taos. We had been introduced to a woman who was writing a book about the Penitentes who carried the strict tradition of Spanish Catholicism, from the Inquisition. Their chapels are windowless squat structures tha [View Full Entry]

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The odd thing is the shift in my identity with each travel venue. In Kham and India I felt like a kind of universal human....not particularly identified as American or Western...more as 'Other'. The Tibetans and the Indians were so exotic and immersed in their traditional life that I felt as if I was in the thirteenth century...impressed with the ways in which the human family was able to adapt to the high mountains or in the desert. Here in Germany , at this particular time, I feel fully and selfconsciously American. Right away, on our first night we had dinner [View Full Entry]

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Here is a beginning for our European trip. Details to follow. Please note that our travel email address is <leveton@hotmail.com> [View Full Entry]

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PostScript Dharmasala 8 October 2004 Norbulingka Institute Walking down the street in Dharamsala, I spot a beautiful woman whose jewelery seems very familiar. We talk. She is from Dege..a refugee for the past 6 years. She is enthralled that I have just come from Dege..There are many from Kham here in Dharamsala..many aided by the Norbulingka Institute which has craft workshops, English lessons, help for trauma suffered in China and many from Kham. The director can show my pictures from Kham on his digital projector and we make a date at 7:00PM to show them. About one hundred and thirty ti [View Full Entry]

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It began with a fish steamed and crusted with batter arranged to seem as if wings or gills stood out at right angles to its body...and ended with an eagle out of butter watching over fresh crab, one of about thirty Seshuan delicacies, shrimp, eggplant, fresh vegitables,noodles, grilled meat..with the bottomless glass of beer: 'here's to US-China friendship, Gombe!! (bottoms up); 'here's to the guest lecturers, Gombe!! ; here's to the vice chairman of the department, Gombe!';here's to Professor Nima, Gambe!!! As soon as the empty glass put down, one of the five waiters refills it instantly. (fo [View Full Entry]

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Some topics promised. Our superstitions. We are not allowed to predict the weather even though Marty has this wonderful barometer and altimeter on his wrist which shows trends. This prohibition is based on pure science using road conditions as an analogue. We have learned that, after twenty kilometers of mud, ruts and rocks, that, if we reach black top or cement roadway and say "The good road at last!: the Goddess who supervises these matters will make sure that, around the next bend will be twenty more kilometers of possibly even worse road mud, ruts and rocks. She does this for [View Full Entry]

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