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To: epicure who wrote (4595)	4/22/2004 9:44:17 AM
From: coug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51713

Good morning X, Well our dads certainly read different type stuff for sure. I'm not sure if he ever read a classic, :), he was into current events, newspapers, magazines and such. But what counted, he taught me to read and think for myself. And talk about things, my goodness, all the time as we were growing up. Out in the fields, at the supper table, doing the chores, etc. He wasn't stoic as Finns are supposed to be. :). And another thing, we visited a lot with neighbors and friends and the children would always go and sit and join in. The adults, some very cynical, were into current events, science, whatever, so the children could listen and learn. (to be cynical maybe, <g>). And moving on, you mentioned posting some memorable moments of our recent trip. Besides the numerous natural, cultural and archaeological ones, a couple different types stand out, one very spiritual and one very delightful. I will leave the former for later and quickly mention the latter. We visited a "river people" town on the Amazon large enough to have a elementary school. Our guide, grew up on the river so he knew and had access to a school. So we asked if we could visit a school. Of course. So we entered a 3rd grade class room. What a delight to see about 30 shining faces in spotless uniforms just overjoyed to greet us and shake our hand. To make a long story short, each and everyone introduced themselves, us included. They even wanted to know our professions. They sang a couple of songs to us. One where we had to learn the chorus. What a joy? We even sang a song to them, "Happy Birthday" . Another couple was with us and that was one we all could sing. they loved it. What a way to communicate without knowing the language? The teacher told us the children would keep this up forever if they had a choice. So we reluctantly left after about 30 minutes. As we walked around the town, visiting a clinic, government buildings, etc, I realized once again, that things "work" in many different ways and it doesn't have to be like "our" way. To understand this, this has to be seen first hand though, not on TV <g>. If only more people would travel to see that, there would be one helluva a lot less trouble in the world. In fact, I was thinking that on one of our many boat trips on the river (we must have logged a thousand miles on different type boats down there from dug outs to motor), that we should receive a tax credit for travel to different cultures. Not the type to 5 star hotels in London, Paris or Rome though. To only truly different places. That credit would pay for itself many fold back by less defense and other type spending, I am sure.. Take care, m