Trip to Paris...More like Inspiration in Paris

Paris!

When you step off the plane at Charles de Gaul,  you know you are somewhere else.  People from all over the world suddenly seem to converge all in one place, you know you are tired, a little disoriented, yet excited and exhilarated all at the same time.  What is it about this city of lights, what brings people to this place, what are they seeking?  

Those who live here, French to the core, even if they are from Cote d'ivoire, Senegal, Morocco or other places in the French Colonial past.  All coming together, in some ways as a big mess, in other ways it is much like the psyché of this city, a canvas of art that knows its past very well, yet is constantly seeking its next resistance or revolution.  

Paris, it seems, is about opening up doors.  When you enter into one of its many, especially Gothic Churches, the first thing you do is enter in, into a Portal, as if to open up a piece of your self.  Our lives are often lived in isolation, yet that is not how we are meant to be.  The expression of entering into that new realm, or as the religious people would like you to do, look up towards the heavens and find your light, find your meaning, find and live your "Esprit"!  This term is not one, those of us in the English speaking world, quite get.  There are areas of our being we don't get, maybe we don't want to get, because that would mean we need to look at our spirit, our lives and ask, what are we doing.  We have to be able to look at ourselves naked, I don't necessarily mean this literally, yet we need to contemplate our strengths, our weakness, our brokenness our deep sense of confidence we all seek.  This struck me, especially at Musée Rodin, in so many of his sculptures their nakedness exposed them and it was just down to their personhood, their humanity, their emotions, their moment of truth.  Just to mention two, First, "The Thinker", this famous sculpture that probably all would recognize, this man straining every muscle, down to his toes being curled in thought.  It takes our whole being to realize who we are and what we are about.  The other Ugolino,  he climbing over the dying bodies of his children, having lost everything, no longer even desperate, he has had his humanity his dignity shattered and he depicts this so well.  His bringing modern/contemporary art to a new level, for many his work was obscene, but something in this man struck a cord for his supporters and his detractors.  As someone

who at some stages of my life would have thought his work was not art at all, it doesn't have a sense of realism, I appreciate tis now, because in many ways his work is truly real, we see in our lives, especially in our thoughts our dreams a sense of mystery and distortion, this can pull us to a clearer sense of what makes us tick and what drives our passions.

Paris makes you think of passion or its original Greek word, (Eros) all the time, at every corner you get a sense of the sacred and the secular all at the same time.  When you look at the history of this place, you have the history of the kings, to paths that led to revolution, the scars and the healing, that maybe have never and will never heal.  Looking at the back of Notre Dame, those buttresses keeping up those walls, as well as lifting many a person, closer, closer to God and thus for many, closer to their own humanity.  Once in or outside those walls you notice the deep fashion sense, the care of seemingly every hair being groomed on many a people, it is both a competition as well  as a respect of who and whom we are.  Buildings that were once used as Royalties Playground, now in many cases is used for people to live, to sustain, to move us forward, without forgetting our past.  

This is something that many in the US, simply can't relate to, we have no memory of A couple of hundred years ago, ok we weren't even around as a nation, but my point is we didn't have monarchs or our leaders having open decadent parties while people are starving in the streets, we haven't had two wars that wiped out significant portions of our own population wiped out, many times with bombs dropping in your own neighborhood.  Now mind you, I also write this as a Catholic yet one who has not always been one or who at times even wrestles with faith.

One thing I notice about Parisians, they aren't going to be all that impressed with much, hell they don't even take pictures of the amazing food they have, and with their great and terrible past, why would they?  I can appreciate this mentality in so many ways  we are seeing in our own country the effects of institutions we used to think were cornerstones, they disappoint us.  In the realm of government we always knew it could and would be at times corrupt, part of our foundation.  For many, our churches, were a bastions that were a fortress, a protector, a shelter, a light, a prophet, a cultural cornerstone.  Now for many we have found a lot of disappointment, we find that at times all of those adjectives were at times false, it either leads us to sticking our heads in the sand and bunker down on our vision of what ever institution we love or it can crumble and we have a lot of disdain for it even if though we will always carry visions of nostalgia with us.  

I say tis because this is the interplay that has happened in Paris for centuries, it has been built, destroyed, decayed and rebuilt itself many times. I say this as one example of many, why it would be tough to impress a Parisian.  

The one exception that seems to impress a Parisian, is the art of dialogue.  Every where you go the whole city is set for what I will call dialogue.  Cafés, Gardens, Bistrot's public space, outdoor space, Churches and the list goes on and on.  In a day and age where papers are a sinking business at every stand you find at least five local, many more than once daily papers as well as the readily available papers even from many different countries, the way people start their day with a coffee, then take seemingly hours for lunch, to then spend hours of the evening well into the night centered around dialogue.     After just a few days when Lori, my wife, were, if you will, immersed into the daily life a couple of hours for dinner was not unheard of.  My observation of those around me, especially of those who are locals, this is common place, this is natural, this is life.  

I think when we go through our lives, during the change of the seasons, when we experience changes in our lives, when we move to new phases, when we experience great joy, upheaval, when people or institutions disappoint us, it is then that we must turn within, and also turn outside of ourself and commence in dialogue, a dialogue wit ourselves, with the whole of our being.  Much like Rodin's "The Thinker", if you look at this masterpiece you can see his whole body clinching in thought,  it takes the whole of our being to be in real dialogue.   This dialogue happens with ourselves, with others, with our god, verbally, non-verbally, yet we must partake in this dialogue or it seems such a waste, this is something that is a very Western ideal, much in eastern thought would ask us in some ways to clear our mind, totally, which can be good, yet I feel that it can destroy who we are and we need our thoughts, and our intellect and will find who we are and that happens through our dialogue of life.  Now we must clear our thoughts  to center ourselves some can  be focused, to find out who we are and what makes us tick.  

This is just a little of the joy of Paris, not just Paris but travel in general, Paris has for years been a place of poets, philosophers, politics, lovers, a meeting place of the best the worst.  Paris is a place that brings countless souls in search of something, something about the place, yes; yet I would venture to say most are searching for something about themselves or as palace to send them and the ones they love off to begin a wondrous journey of dialogue and self discovery in a world shaded in so many ways.  It is a place you can let your senses run wild, it is a place where the best tourist attraction is taking a stroll with one you love, less is more in Paris, a place to be you, to find you to rediscover you.  Revolution is this cities mantra, but this isn't always done with guns and canons, it is done through a smell, a song, a sight, a touch, a love, Paris is a place to discover!