Hitler's Shadow

Today I took a short hike to Bismarck Tower, originally built in honor of the Prussian Chancellor (later unifier of Germany and pioneer of ‘political realism’) and eventually used by Hitler to give a speech. Like most things in Germany, it’s completely open to explore. Retracing Hitler’s footsteps, I found myself at the top overlooking all of Landstuhl. I watched purple clouds swell as a few rays of light penetrated the ominous cover. Light drops of rain landed on my face. I felt nothing.

I climbed down and bolted out of the entry way, a dead sprint through the woods until my veins pumped battery acid. It felt good to get away from that place. Eventually I made it back to the hospital gates and the German guards, all smiles, asked me how it was.

I told them it was dark. “Es vas dunkel.”

They nodded and laughed. How time distorts things.

You see, 60 something years ago, in the shadow of the fuhrer, they would have put a bullet into my chest on first sight. Now their weapons remain holstered and we are near jovial. In the wake of everything else going on in the world today (see today’s attacks on Israel) I wonder if there is validity in hope. There must be.

I think again of that terribly beautifully sky I breathed in from atop the tower.

We only know the clouds are there because we know of the light.

This much, I feel, is beyond the distortions of time.