Happy New Year

from a place where East meets West and Old meets New.

It's been almost 23 years since the reunification of East and West Germany. Berlin the old, new capital of Germany was once divided, but the scars of the Berlin wall, the monument of the cold war, are now hard to find. Yet, they are still there. For New Years Eve we went for a nice stroll to get some unusual views from the places where once East met West. Today hundreds of thousands tourists meet at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate, Silvester, as it is known in Germany. There are spectacular midnight fireworks, plenty of champagne, and live music performances to entertain the masses at Brandenburg Gate. It symbolically marked the separation between East and West, and has been the focal point for New Year celebrations in Berlin since the early 1990s. Five million people welcomed the new millennium in this area of Berlin. Potsdamer Platz is about 3/4 mile south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. It was totally laid waste during World War II and then left desolate during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its former location. Today Potsdamer Platz has been completely transformed into a futuristic, urban hot spot. On and off the tourist path there are still signs of the transition to be found. Berlin is a great place to stroll around, review the past year and think what great things the future may bring in 2012.

Tis the season

I am not a big Christmas person. After my father died, the Christmas spirit was gone. It was not the same anymore.  At the age of 12 I spent 4 weekends in a row in overcrowded shops on my own in order to find Christmas gifts. I think during this time I started hating Christmas. As a teenager I always dreamt that I could escape it all and simply could spent Christmas with friends. I dreamt we would cook, eat and drink together. We'd play some games, listen to some great music and just enjoy each other, instead of staying at home doing the usual Christmas stuff. Well, I am almost at an age where I can do this now. These days there is even more overdosis of everything at Christmas, starting with the decoration of houses right after Thanksgiving.  I think I am with the anonymous writer of a letter to his neighbors in Michigan, who describes the phenomenon as a pagan ritual.

A little bit of Christmas decoration is OK, though. I use the Christmas light chains to decorate my windows inside, and I actually use them all year round. It gives my house a great festivitive character - I love it. I also made peace with the Christmas shopping burden, I order almost everything online. In this respect, great times we are living in. This year I was looking for some new Christmas decoration. I replaced some of the China-made Christmas crap with a lovely pyramid, bought and made in Germany. I also found a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the shops. Just the type of Christmas tree I really like. Although as a child I have seen the peanuts on TV, I couldn't remember the special 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. I looked it up on Amazon, when I ordered the DVD. It was highly recommended for Christmas by some parents. They said it is a real must to watch with the children to teach them what Christmas is really about. So this Christmas I will watch the Charlie Brown Christmas story with my kids. We will cook, eat and drink together. We'll play some games and listen to some great music and just enjoy each other. Merry Christmas!

What makes your life good?

Life has been good again for quite a while. After a divorce one feels down, even if it may have been the right decision ... nightmares, guilt, fear, the feeling of failure and worthlessness creeps up. Only after a long while that great feeling of freedom and happiness slowly comes back. Wow, all these things one can do and say and nobody is there to complain about anything. Why did one ever wanted to be in a self-chosen social prison. One still wonders, though, why one was't able to simply live a life which accommodates all our basic needs and integrates some mutual respect. Well, I'll take all the blame. Some people just are different and don't fit into the typical social constructs our society has to offer. We just do need a little more space, a larger slice of tranquility, and a bigger breeze of freedom, which is sweet balm for our souls. Not everyone understands these needs, but everyone should be able to accept them. When we grew up we were all brain washed by watching 'The Waltons' and 'A little house on the prairie', but not everyone fits into the Walton family life style, and there is no need to. Only because there is a majority of people in our society apparently happy with such a concept for their life, it doesn`t mean that a minority needs to adopt to this prevailing lifestyle. There are alternatives, and with almost 40% of marriages ending in divorce, may be it is time for a new thinking. The Waltons lifestyle concept was replaced by the concepts in 'Seinfeld' and by 'Friends' on TV and in life, at least for the more progressive parts of the country. In the South one still does not get invited to every party and one often feels awkward in certain social settings, such as the famous corporate Christmas parties. No problem, there are workarounds like simply having your own parties. The ring on the left hand is some magic entrance key for certain social circles, but hey, I don't plan to run for president (and couldn't anyway) or live in MtBrook anyway. What many Southerners don't know is that other cultures wear their wedding rings on the right hand and the left hand is used for the engagement ring or fashion rings. So the easy workaround is to just wear a nice ring of your choice on the left hand, and if your are asked, blame your European heritage and family traditions. That little ring keeps overambitious husband-seekers at distance, and it seems to make people feel much more at ease, for reasons only real Southerners may fully understand. For the rest of us, life is goooood once we figure out what really works for us, how we can still fit in down here in the beautiful South, and if we dare to be different.