Europe and America Part II

I kept asking myself as I looked at the ancient rock that had once formed this or that architectural wonder of ancient Greece what stupidity would have possessed the Goths, the Romans, the Turks (who, in the 16th century used the Parthenon as a store-house for dynamite and managed, by that decision to accidentally explode it during a thunderstorm) to destroy such legacies of human accomplishment and beauty. It was heartbreaking to see how many ancient buildings in Greece had had to be restored in order for us to even get a sense of what they once looked like. The whole scene of ruin reminded me (in a very anachronistic way) of the tragedy of the cultural revolution in China. In any case, whatever disease caused such aesthetic atrocities, I had to remind myself, our species isn't cured of yet: even today the monuments of a 3 thousand year old civilization are, to many Athenians, little more than another place to tag.

Europe and America Part I

The pictures below were taken in Strasbourg in Eastern France last month. They are of its epic, 600 year old gothic cathedral, "Notre Dame de Strasbourg". I spent a long time soaking up the overwhelming architecture of this incredible place and was stunned to find what a profound impact it had on me emotionally, spiritually and aesthetically. When I lived in Chicago near some of the tallest buildings in the world - buildings that would dwarf this cathedral - I was always struck by how short those buildings seem when you stand next to them. The architect of this midieval sanctuary, however, managed to achieve the opposite effect. Looking up from the base of Notre Dame de Strasburg makes you dizzy with the soaring heights of its spire and buttresses - as though God himself might be perched above ready to collapse upon your sinful head.