Logging In The Travel!

Madame:

Your post about fearful parenting, and society’s punishment of those who aren’t irrationally fearful, would normally incense me to much comment.  But I will move that to the edge of the hibachi grill for now.  Btw, that picture is terrific.  On to more travel journaling!

7/26

Breakfast was good, made fresh on the spot at this Bed & Breakfast: turkey and cheese croissants, blueberries and grapes, cinnamon rolls, cranberry juice, pineapple, and green tea.  Took some oat bars and an apple for later.

Today we went to the Field Museum of Natural History.  It had a great 3D film about Waking the T Rex, an examination and CDI projection of the T Rex skeleton found by archaeologists and in display at that very museum. They also had an exhibit on Ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian culture, market life, etc., as well as, of course, mummies.  

It had a below ground mockup that was interesting:

The boys enjoyed the Biomechanics exhibit quite a lot.  The sustainable, local area food at the café was very good.  There was also a hall of gems which was visually very appealing.  I enjoyed most, however, the Pawnee Earth Lodge.  As I sat on the buffalo blanket bed and contemplated the quite big and airy lodge, I was reminded of how much we hurt ourselves when we don’t try to learn from other cultures.  While the European settlers in the Americas were breaking their backs working year round, trying to impose their foreign plants, foreign animals, foreign practices and wills on a land, all the while disdaining the practices of the natives, the Native Americans would have three or more months a year where they would take TIME to:

Rest.

Renew.

Learn.

Contemplate.

Discuss.

Enrich relationships.

Respect.

Revere.

We would have invested more hours at the Field Museum, but we hustled out to go to the Shedd Aquarium, only to be quite disappointed that the aquarium was going to close early for some unexplained reason.  Always wanting to have a Plan B for such vacation snags, we caught the L back to Evanston (technically, north of there, in Wilmette), where we walked to the Baha’i Temple.  A quiet and serene place, it is the Baha’i House of Worship for North America, and one of only seven such in the world (one on each continent, soon to be more).  

It is a faith that stresses oneness of humanity and belief that different faiths worship or aspire in different ways the same one God.  They have been persecuted in many intolerant places, primarily Islamic dominated countries, and hundreds have been killed, some by execution, even though practitioners are typically non-violent and even pacifist.

The temple, built under the same principles at the Pantheon in Rome (remember?), is quite simple and conducive to contemplation.  It has sayings engraved in the walls or on mountings:

We tried to go to the beach, but were frustrated at how much had been privatized and was off limits.  So we came back to Evanston and ate Chicago deep dish pizza at Lou Malanati’s, a Chicago chain.  It was good stuff, and being outdoors eating was even better!