The Victim's Victim

Well, we're back home safe and sound...and what a news cycle we missed!

Michael gone, Farah gone, Sarah gone...culture of personal responsibility gone?

One of the most stark differences I noted while traveling through Switzerland (aside from the cows, of course) is that Switzerland is a country of personal responsibility. Virtually every adventure we took from cable car rides to dizzying heights to Alpine Slide runs and crazy fast water slides into warm pools of natural hot springs was done AT OUR OWN RISK. No waivers to sign, no guards on duty, just clear signage explaining what steps to take to make each adventure safe and enjoyable and then poof...we were on our own.

In the country that birthed what is now known at The Red Cross, safety is certainly a high priority. But staying safe and healthy is not a matter for lawyers and liability suits...it is a citizen's right and privilege to take care. In many respects, everybody is on his own honor to follow the rules and it seems that most folks do. Maybe the sheer fact that there will be no compensation to be had or larger entity to blame paves the way for personal guardianship.

But here, it seems, we might have too much to gain by being a victim. Is it possible that with everything to gain by blaming others, we have become a culture of big, fat babies?

Well, maybe not...but as I began to round up all the news I missed, This article
strikes me as right on the money about the whole Palin as Victim debacle. It gave me pause and made me glad to be home again.

Nowhere else but America can we have such drama, creativity and fun with the NEWS!

As John McCain said this morning...Palin didn't quit, she just changed her priorities.

Exactly.

Local Color, con't

Hubby joked with the children that we would likely meet grazing cows on some of our hiking excursions.

NO WAY, they insisted.

Way.

The girls were out for a morning graze and met us when we reached the summit of Le Dent de Vaulion.

NEWSFLASH: The grass is apparently greener on the other side of the mountain.

They were having no part of us though...hard to imagine that they actually seemed afraid...or perhaps bothered by our shouts of glee and insistence that they eat grass offered by little human hands.

As a child I often thought that it seemed boring to be a cow. They didn't seem to do much but sit around, relax, eat, and relax some more.

Hmmm...I may have to rethink that whole boring thing...

Local Color

The traditional Alpine Horn as seen in many a Riccola Commercials is now played only for fun and enjoyment. The owner of the home we are renting is seen here practicing his horn...affectionately known by our children as Mr. Alpenhorn he comes to his 'country house' to practice. The sound resonates in the valley and you can easily see why the horn was originally used as a method of communication across the valleys.

The sound really carries.

I'm not sure the color can get more local than this...someone get me a Ricola, I'm getting all choked up.

On Going Home Again

What a rare treat for hubby to take the children back to the home where he lived when he was their age. And, just one day before he and his sisters would sign papers officially selling it to someone outside the family for the first time in three generations.

We toured the primary school where he went, the church where he was baptized, the restaurant where his parents met all within a short walk from his home. Small town life is seems to be something that people everywhere still value. Even here in the Jura Mountains where small towns abound.

The highway runs near by enough now that people who work in the city can live here and still commute to work. Many Swiss are looking for that option. Hence the sale to a real estate developer.

Funny, that even in a place where the countryside is as plentiful as you can imagine, folks are looking for a simpler life.

As hard as it may be to give up a place that formed such strong ideas of what home and family is, it is good to know that this place will be refurbished for others to enjoy and call home.

And finally, it is good to remember that a strong foundation always remains and can give you the perfect springboard to jump happily into your future...

And there came to him a vision of man's true home, beyond the ominous and cloud-engulfed horizon of the here and now, in the green and hopeful and still-virgin meadows of the future. Thomas Wolfe