Ten years ago, my brother spent a summer in Berlin and he absolutely loved it. All the meager German I know is from the contagious adjustment in his lingo a decade ago.
Berlin is this strange, grungy work of art that just feels like it is under construction. While we were there, we went into the glass dome on top of the Reichstag building, an attraction that wasn’t there when my brother was. An absolutely beautiful Holocaust memorial is also new to the heart of Germany’s capital.
It was really tough, especially after the clean whimsy of Munich, to appreciate Berlin’s griminess (especially for Ky). But the thing that we both came to love and appreciate about Berlin is the reminder that we are all a work in progress.
The last hundred years have been a roller coaster for the city of Berlin. It was the capital of Nazism and justifiably destroyed therefore. In the coming years, it was stretched and then divide and then literally sliced in two. The Berlin Wall was like kicking a city when it was down. Instead of getting back on the horse after falling off, the horse was cut in half. It does a weird thing to the psyche of a culture to have to go through what Berlin experienced in just a few decades.
In the twenty five years since the Berlin Wall went down, Berlin has established itself as a world class city – a well-run government, street artist and an underground party scene, and an honest acknowledgement of its past with great hope towards the future.
It is an incredibly helpful model for the kind of human I would like to be. Germany is very practical, but they also recognize their Germany efficiency has a weird quirky sort of charm. Berlin is also very expressive. It is not afraid to say some things. One of our most memorable encounters was with a weary-looking street performer that Kylie talked to and encouraged.
There is so much about my past that is messy and ugly. Sometimes I feel like I spend most of my time trying to hide, cover up, or deny my wounds. Like the whole of Berlin, I’d do better to acknowledge it and work forward, learning from it with humility and hopefulness.
Berlin is a city of progress, finally heading full force in a positive direction. This stop on our journey is just a couple weeks before the end of our trip and it was a strange boost. We were tired and ready to go home in Berlin. Which isn’t Berlin’s fault. In a strange sort of way, the lack of sexiness and overwhelming awe in Germany’s capitol city was encouraging. We had to chose our mood in Berlin.
The journey of life is always just about one foot in front of the other. The schnitzel is amazing and the public transit confusing. But such is life, we are in it together and we are trying to make sense of it, trying to make the best of it. When Berlin had lost its way, it was because it had turned life into a power play rather than enjoying life for the beautiful grind that it is.
