They Astonish Me

It’s amazing how my family gets around the globe. When I was young, I raveled a bit where the ordinary citizen just wasn’t going at the time. I rode trains for long trips, once from coast to coast, before the heyday of much passenger plane travel, and the trains often had numerous empty seats. Now that I’ve traveled both ways, I much prefer the train, unless time is of the essence. However, I haven’t wanted to go anywhere for years and years. I’m like Isaac Asimov, who wrote, “I don’t need to go anywhere. I’m already there.” That’s exactly the way I have felt for some time. But Asimov was a genius. If you check on his literary output, you’ll see it was prodigious. He must have felt that taking time out from his writing to rest a bit was a chance to do more writing. I feel that way too. But back to my family now.

Of my four children, all made it to Europe, along with my husband. Our only daughter spent many months, three or four trips, there, mainly in France, but also in several other countries. Then she spent quite a while in Japan, visited the Philippines, and Free China.

Our youngest son spent a month in Greece with his father, on a medical treatment trip, after a stopover in Rome. Our daughter, living in France at the time, visited them there.

Our two older sons have landed in several countries, sometimes on vacation and sometimes in connection with their work, and in other locations besides Europe. One works in a foreign country now and the other might as well, for Kentucky is a long trip from my location.

The next generation down is doing the same thing. Two grandchildren spent a year or so studying in England, followed up for one of them by a year working in South Korea. One granddaughter had a college semester studying and traveling in Europe, where her mother visited her. Currently one grandson is working in northern Africa, where his parents are located, from which point he and his wife and baby have visited Italy, including Vatican City and its art treasures. That wife, my granddaughter-in-law, with the baby, is today completing a visit to South Korea, en route to America. Another grandson, with his wife and three children, spent a year working in Canada. One grandson spent time for several summers visiting friends in Belgium, to sharpen his tennis stroke and refine his French. Today he is about to finish his second year at West Point, where he’s on the tennis team. Another grandson, or perhaps he’s a great grandson, has had a trip to Washington, D. C., while very young. Someone needs to remind me who this is.

Some of my grandchildren have not opted for such traveling, but they do get around in the States. There must also be indications in the third generation down that they may take to the skies and oceans too. There are so many in this dynasty that I head, that I surely must not be up to date on all the offspring.

But one interesting aspect to their traveling is that they talk about scenes and places, customs and history, that I’ve always been aware of, one way or another. As Asimov said, I’m already there.

♥