What Inspires Stories?

One of the objections I kept hearing about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (across the street from the Museum) is that there's nothing to see there. It's true that the library is a working research library and the staff are busy taking care of historians and researchers working on their projects. Personally, I wanted to browse the stacks but they're closed to the general public!

If Lincoln has garnered more books about him than anyone else in the world, save Jesus Christ, I imagine a terrific way volunteers or staff there could infect people with a passion for primary documents ("why do we save this old stuff anyway?") is to give a walking tour of some of the neat stuff in the collection.

For example, one book about Lincoln that is beloved by Lincoln lovers is "Team of Rivals" by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. What are the interesting primary documents she used to assemble her story? What a terrific way to share with people, especially young adults, how a well-researched book is put together. Such a tour could inspire a few books from the next generation.

Entering the Land of Lincoln

I realized when I made the decision to move to Prague that there was a whole lot of stuff in Illinois and the Midwest in general that I didn't get around to seeing. I didn't know if I would ever live in Illinois again, and there was one thing I absolutely had to see before I left because it went to the core of what the people of Illinois are proud of and hold dear.

I needed to go to Springfield, Illinois and see the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The minute I drove into downtown Springfield, I could understand why my United States Senator, Barack Obama, chose this place to announce his candidacy for presidency of the United States and later, his choice of running mate. I got an instant lump in my throat just arriving -- such is the immediate visibility of American history here.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President
of the United States of America

The museum was designed with the help of people from Disney, so it's the first "experiential" Presidential museum. People come here from all over the world, which surprised me, because Lincoln was president of the United States in the 1860s. I'm always amazed when people from other countries know our history so well.

The staff have the hardest time
keeping kids from pulling all the hair and eyelashes
out of the Lincoln family.
They look so real and the kids want to touch them.

One of the terrific
Presidential Museum volunteers -
there are many

When the museum was built,
the workmen kept trying to get all of the pieces
of the flooring to meet beautifully in the middle
but the tips kept breaking.
So a workman said, "I'll fix that,"
and he put a Lincoln penny into the floor so the tips didn't show.
It's still there! Some of the gentlemen volunteers keep a ready supply
of new shiny pennies to put on that spot
so kids can find it and have a neat souvenir:
a lucky Lincoln penny from the Lincoln Museum.

Museum visitors start their journey
by experiencing life in Lincoln's log cabin
and later go on to experience life in the White House.

During the four days I was visiting Springfield, the whole Bailout story started in the news. Somehow it made me appreciate the sacrifice of this Civil War Generation and what they went through to keep the union intact even more. The sacrifice and stress on the Lincolns themselves was incredible, with three dead children and of course, Lincoln's own death.

One of the most telling displays was the whispering gallery. As you walked through, you could hear all of the awful things people would say about the Lincolns while they were in office whispered out loud.

Another display that I appreciated was a presentation answering the question "what do we save this old stuff for anyway?" Explaining this to children has never been more important since children often no longer have a real librarian teaching them about libraries anymore in their schools. The presentation was so well done, many of us could not tell if the historian in the presentation was a hologram or an actor.

Listening to tweens come out of another "experiential" presentation, I heard them exclaim "that was so fly! That was awesome! Can we go in again?"

There is no way I can convey what the Museum so expertly conveyed which is how damn lucky the American people were to have this leadership at a time of enormous uncertainty when things could have gone so many different ways. As the historian in the first presentation said, the reason we save these old things is "so that the best in us-- live on in you."

A Czech Life Well Lived

I came across this New York Times story about a Czech glass designer who revived the Waterford brand in Ireland and wanted to share it in case anyone missed it. His work is appreciated worldwide. Click on the title to read the article.

Wacky Missouri History

While leaving central Missouri, I passed a community called Kingdom City. If I hadn't been told by Walt, my couchsurfing host, what the name referred to, I would have assumed the community got that name through a religious reference.

Turns out that during the American civil war, Calloway County, Missouri decided to succeed from the union and become it's own kingdom. Now that's wacky.

So can you guess where I'm going next? Here's two hints:

1) I'm not driving in a straight line to Colorado.

2) I'm going to learn about the human being, who second only to Jesus Christ, has more books written about him than anyone else in the history of world.

"An Iron Curtain has descended"

Driving through Missouri is a pleasure because the glaciers did not make it down this far from the North to flatten the earth. All the county roads are hilly and curvy. Walt, my Couchsurfing host, told me about a terrific one, Road WW, that I should use to arrive at my next destination. I felt like I was in a car commercial, such was the pleasure of the drive!

Just 30 miles from Columbia, Missouri, where daughter #2 goes to university, is the charming small town of Fulton, Missouri. It looks like the kind of community that would be terrific for raising children. It's small enough to be safe for riding bikes all over town but with intellectual stimulation for the community from the local college.

The Winston Churchill Memorial

It was here that the local institution of higher learning, Westminster College, took advantage of having a Missouri native son in the White House, to see if they could finagle Winston Churchill as a speaker for their annual address on international relations. President Harry Truman wrote a handwritten note on the bottom of the invitation telling Mr. Churchill that he would introduce him. Winston promptly accepted.

In 1946, in this small town in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill named and described what was happening to Eastern and Central Europe after WWII. It was forever to be known as the "Iron Curtain" speech.

This is the actual hard copy of Winston Churchill's speech describing "the iron curtain" that had descended over the ancient capitals of Central and Eastern Europe. It's impossible for me to look at the page without reading it mentally in my best Winston Churchill imitation. How about you?

Winston Churchill's life experience is shared through the exhibits. A recurring theme is the ability to foresee what would happen before others could.

The exhibit makes the point again and again that no Czech was present
when the Munich agreement was negotiated
between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler.

Which immediately begs the question: what if one had been?
Would the outcome have been different?
Or would that poor Czech and his descendants have had to live with that?
What do you think?

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway --
this was not the West's finest hour.

What is that quotation?
"Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it."
The museum described that when Churchill assumed leadership of his country,
it was exhausted by war and broke.
He had to decide if he could afford troops on the ground in Iraq
or mere influence. He accepted reality and chose influence.

To commemorate this important speech, Westminster College administration and trustees, pursued importing and reassembling an English church designed by the great Christopher Wren to memorialize the wisdom of Winston Churchill. There were so many churches damaged in the Blitz that the English could not restore them all and were happy to let this one go.

The stones, while marked, became all jumbled when they were used as ballast in the ship's hold coming over (using them as ballast lowered the shipping cost). Then they were jumbled a second time when they were transported across country. Walt's uncle was the lead stone mason on the project. He had the job of puzzling which stone went where.

Winston Churchill's granddaughter created an additional commemoration entitled "Breakthrough" utilizing a segment of the Berlin Wall.

The West German side

The East German side lacking any individual expression

Winston Churchill is my hero so I can't recommend this visit enough. I'm excited to know that I haven't read everything he has published. His writing gives me strength and inspires me.

Great leaders who have followed Winston Churchill to this site include Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, British Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, and Sir John Major, Polish President Lech Walesa, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Touring this site takes about three hours. Admission is $6. I would like to recommend a lively restaurant downtown with great value. A local told me about it. It's called Bek's.

Mizzou Parent's Weekend

Daughter #2 chose University of Missouri at Columbia as her university of choice because it's rated #1 in the nation for her major: journalism. She was not alone. The freshman class has experienced a double-digit growth rate with a record class of 5,812 students.

So on my way to Colorado, and eventually to Prague, I stopped in Columbia, Missouri for parent's weekend to celebrate her choice. And how do American families celebrate their university? Football!

On the way to the game, we walked by the new $50 million student recreation center, voted #1 in the nation by Sports Illustrated. That must have been an incredibly tough label to earn because student recreation centers have been a collegiate focus of investment nationwide. Mizzou students voted to increase their fees to pay for it.

One of the swimming pools -
students can swim inside to one of the other ones.

Beach volleyball, 1,500 miles from a beach!

Some of the tennis courts
There is much more to see inside the facility
But on to the game!

People put their tiger tails on their backside,
hanging out their car trunks,
from their car antennas, everywhere!

One year, Nebraska students changed the "M" to an "N."
Mizzou staff found it and changed it back before the game.
Those sneaky Cornhuskers!

Mizzou Golden Girls

The football team takes the field!

Every time the defense sacks a quarterback
or sets back the other team
they play a REALLY LOUD man-eating Tiger roar
throughout the stadium.

Truman, the Mizzou mascot (named after Harry Truman,
the American President born in Missouri) and the ROTC boys
(students studying to be military officers) do a pushup
for every single point the football team scores.
So by the end of the 42-21 game against Buffalo,
they've done a huge cumulative total of push-ups. Yea team!

Yes, that spells TIGERS!

Couchsurfing in Columbia, Mo!

An essential part of vagabonding is traveling inexpensively and learning and growing from the locals. As someone who's idea of roughing it is a Best Western in need of remodeling, my wariness of a new, inexpensive way to travel courtesy of the information age was considerable. Yet, young people have been adopting this new way of traveling in droves, saving all kinds of money, and having a fantastic time with the people they met.

What is this new way? Couchsurfing! There is a user-friendly website where people all over the world create a profile offering their spare guest bedroom or the couch for travelers who may be passing through. While there are other home stay organizations, such as Servas or Hospitality Club, I appreciate the speed with which you can get started with this website. I decided I was going to take the plunge and give it a try.

My first hosts - Walt and Mary Jean-Gerard,
they gave me confidence in the whole process
because we had so much fun!

The Couchsurfing Mission:

"CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.

As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to make the world a better place, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal. CouchSurfing isn't about the furniture-it's not just about finding free accommodations around the world- it's about participating in creating a better world. We strive to make a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans,continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!"

Could you get a room like this in a hotel?
I think not.
Mary and Walt's house celebrates 50's funk
and it's so much fun to see.

Mary and Walt made my stay in Columbia so much more interesting because they knew so much about the local area and they have incredibly interesting lives to share.

I loved hearing about Mary and Walt's six children who are scattered over the globe doing interesting things - one son is the chef de cuisine at Tru, Chicago's top, top restaurant, another is a jazz musician in Chicago and has played the Green Mill (one of the famous historic jazz houses), another is an independent filmmaker in Edinburgh, Scotland. I share this because I think it's easy to be scared to try couchsurfing. I found it completely enriching and I'm just getting started!

Here's the story about how the service began from the Couchsurfing FAQs:

"Well, the idea solidified when founder, Casey Fenton, got a cheap ticket to Iceland for a long weekend one April. With his ticket in hand, there was one problem: he had no place to stay and no desire to rot in a hotel all weekend and play Mr. Tourist. So, he came up with the 'brilliant' idea of spamming over 1500 Icelandic students in Reykjavik and asking them if he could crash on one of their couches. After exchanging emails with many of the students, he had several groups of friends offer to show him 'their' Reykjavik. So, after spending an amazing, crazy weekend just south of the Arctic Circle, Casey decided he would never again get trapped in a hotel and tourist marathon while traveling. From that point onward, it was all about crashing on exotic couches and cultural exchange. And, thus, the CouchSurfing Project was born."

I've now stayed in four different homes through Couchsurfing, and hotels seem kind of impersonal and boring after staying with the people I've met so far.

Isn't it exciting what the Internet has made possible? There was a huge meetup of 200 couchsurfers in Prague this month. I'm so sorry I've missed it! Was it fun? What's been your experience with Couchsurfing? Link to the website via the title.