The U.S. is Not a Christian Nation.

I hear it asserted that the United States is One Nation, Under God.  That we are a Christian Nation.  And then I hear arguments against it that it never was.  I personally come from a Christian perspective but I believe the latter.  We are not a Christian nation.  But not for the reasons that some may argue.

The fact is that people in the United States may be christian, but our nation is not.  In the way that our nation acts in the world, in the way that our culture and politics respond, we are much more like the Roman empire that killed our Christ than we are with the one we say we worship.

What did Christ teach?  Here are 10 of some of his most famous teachings:

• Love your enemies.  Matthew 5:43-47
• Do unto others as you would have them do to you.  Matthew 7:12
• Love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Matthew 22:36-40
• Whosoever wants to be a leader among you must first and foremost be a servant.  Mark 10:42-45
• If you love Jesus, you will feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned.  Matthew 25:35-40
• Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers.  Matthew 5:3-12
• Judge not lest ye be judged. Matthew 7:1-5
• If you want to be perfect in God's eyes, give away your wealth and serve the poor.  Matthew 19:21
• If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.  Matthew 26:52
• Choosing not to forgive is almost as bad as murder.  Matthew 5:21-26

But Jesus got mad and violent, too! some might say.  Well, when did he do that?  What made him angry?  He got angry when people took advantage of other people, especially the poor.

How many of these lessons do you think that the United States exhibits in the world?  As a nation?  As a culture?  Let's take a look at the Roman Empire.

Ancient Rome was a Republic, similar-ish to the U.S.  They had "elected" representatives that would vote on behalf of the nation.  Of course, elected is loose, as they could pretty much buy votes.  And once elected, most of their votes were self-serving.  Public office was one of the main roads to personal wealth.  They would vote to move public services to the private sector so that they could benefit personally from the provision of these services.

As a result of this, elections became incredibly expensive.  Caesar borrowed so heavily for one campaign that he feared he would be ruined if he weren't elected.

Rome was almost constantly at war, with only a few exceptions.  They were either conquering or defending their borders.  Much of the time, rulers would pursue war in order to avoid focus on domestic issues.

In the period just before the Roman Republic's fall, the middle class was devastated -- destroyed by cheap overseas slave labor.

Ancient Rome had religion as a central part of its society but was somewhat tolerant of other religions.

Rome was the most powerful country in the world, in its time.  It had outposts in most of the known countries and regions.  Trying to keep up such massive power drained its economic resources.


Does the United States as a people pursue power and wealth?  Or do we pursue mercy and service?  Do we turn away from wealth to help the poor?  Do we live by violence or by peace?

American culture seems to have much more in common with Rome than with what Christ commanded.  We idolize the wealthy and the powerful.  We turn a blind eye to the poor, the disenfranchised, the people on the fringe.  We take retribution on our enemies without mercy.  We abhor weakness.  We put up fences and defend our tiny piece of land against everybody including our neighbors.  We make judgments about the way people look and act and call them enemy.

There are many individuals and families in this nation that are wonderful and do try to uphold the values of Jesus.  But as a culture, we are the opposite. We act like what Jesus taught is something that we SAY we believe in, but we're too fallible to actually do all of it (unless you're talking about someone ELSE's life).

Jesus said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?"  In Luke 6:46-49, he talks about how those who claim him as Lord but do not follow his words are fools.  

This is why I believe that we are fools to call ourselves a Christian nation -- until we start following what Christ taught.

The Long Road to Rome

Oh my goodness, how long has it been since we posted?  We left you all hanging in Positano.  Which, to be honest, is not a bad place to hang.  It's pretty close to heaven.

(NOTE:  We've actually finished our vacation and are back home.  But I'll finish the daily blog so that y'all can get the full story.)

Today we made the final leg of our journey -- from Positano to Rome.  We rose, finished packing our cases, ate our final breakfast here, said goodbye to our amazing balcony view, and checked out of the Hotel Savoia.

We've had some pretty incredible luck when it comes to catching buses and trains.  Very rarely have we had to wait for anything and today was no exception.  With our 50lb suitcases in tow, packs strapped to our backs, we walked the half kilometer up the hill to the main road through Positano to catch a bus to Sorrento.  When we were almost to the top of the hill, we saw the SITA bus sitting at the stop, the last few people in line filing through its doors.  So we RAN -- yes, RAN, uphill, with luggage.  Okay, I'm being dramatic.  It was about 10 meters.  But that's probably farther than I've ran in probably a year and a half.  Heh.

Once aboard the bus and in our seats, Hannah and I each took a piece of our seasick gum.  It was supposed to help us with the motion-sickness that typically accompanies a voyage on these buses.  You can sort of see what I'm talking about in this video that I took along the way:  http://youtu.be/ti7sZ4KWcRM.  It doesn't really do it justice but you can have an idea.

In the video you can hear a guy talking -- John -- who was traveling on his own and liked to talk.  About pretty much everything.  The entire way there.  He was very nice, but it's difficult to focus on someone talking when your stomach is itching to re-upholster the seat in front of you.

I didn't get sick, but Hannah wasn't so lucky.  She kept it down, but just barely, poor thing.  So when we arrived in Sorrento and prepared to board the Circumvesuviana city train to Naples, she opted to take a motion-sickness pill.  Which makes you oh-so-sleepy.

We took the train to Naples.  Hannah slept. Then we caught a high-speed train from Naples to Rome.  Hannah slept some more.

In Rome, things got a little tricky.  I arranged for a B&B about 3 blocks from the Colosseum.  But the B&B was owned by a couple who weren't in town.  They needed for me to call and let them know when we arrived, so that they could have their neighbor let us in.  Unfortunately, we did not have phone service in Italy.  So I ended up having to find a pay phone and explain to a stranger in my bastardized Italian that I couldn't figure out how to use a phone.  I started impressing the Romans early-on.

Oh -- Hannah took a nap on the sidewalk while this was happening.  :)

Obviously, it all worked out.  Our room was clean and spacious enough.  The bed, similar to most of the beds we experienced, was sort of like lumpy plywood.  But other than that it was very decent.

After we checked in and woke Hannah up, we decided to walk.  We walked by the Colosseum then the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, which is a giant monument created to commemorate the first king of a unified Italy at the beginning of the 20th Century.  It is elaborate and made of solid marble.  Some call it the Wedding Cake. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altare_della_Patria

I'd like to point out how different Rome is from Naples.  Both are very large and busy cities.  Both have what Americans would call "crazy drivers" and crazier pedestrians.  But Rome has an elegance about it that seems to be absent in Naples.  It is full and busy without being dirty.  You can't spit without hitting something ancient.  It is full of tourists of course, so it is also full of languages.  Every other person that you pass is speaking Italian, German, Spanish, English, Greek, Russian, etc.  Rome is GRAND, in every sense of the word.  It is huge.  It is old.  It is timeless.

We walked a bit further and decided that our first dinner in Rome would be Chinese food.  Sometimes a little break from pasta is required, so we opted for rice and chicken which was delicious.

After dinner we walked to Trastevere (a bohemian part of Rome which features lots of restaurants and night life), and watched the sun set over the Tiber river.  On the way back, we had THE BEST pear gelato -- you could feel the tiny bits of granular pear in its smooth sweet texture.  Sooooooo good!

Not a bad first day in Rome.  :)

SCOOOOOOTERS!!!

I don’t know if I can describe one of the best days of my life with words.  Honestly.  I mean, I’ve had some pretty wonderful days that cannot be surpassed – the birth of my nephew, for example.  But today was definitely in the top 10. 

Our intention when we got up this morning was to rent scooters and scoot to Amalfi, which is about 8 or 9 miles away.  I need to preface this with another story.

Last time I was here with my friends, Deanna and Maria, we rented scooters.  Typically, when they rent to an individual, you can rent a 50cc scooter which is fairly low powered.  It’s a good idea to go this route if you’ve never ridden before.  However, on that day, they were out of the 50cc scooters and gave each of us 125cc scooters, which have a bit more power.

I’ll spare you all the details, but I crashed that day.  Twice.  I ran into a garage door and got my leg caught in a sconce, and then I ran into a cliff wall on the freeway.  I had huge bruises from my hip to my toes. 

So today, when they told us that again they were out of the 50cc scooters, I got a little freaked. But we did it.  Why stop now?

They brought us to the garage, showed us the scooters (they did have one 50cc left which Hannah got since she hadn’t ridden on the coast here before), gave us a little primer on how to operate them, and helped us on our way by riding with us about a half kilometer.  After that, we were on our own.

What to say next…

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! 

OMG, we had SO much fun!  At first we were timid, staying slow-ish, getting the feel of the bikes, the curves in the road, and the traffic.  We were pretty much that way until we got to Amalfi. 

Amalfi is a beautiful little town a bit smaller than Positano but probably more popular.  It has more of a port than our town does, though and gets a bit more traffic. 

We parked our scooters (in a parcheggio) and found food to go (a calzone-type of thing but the pastry part was soft and doughey like a donut).  Then we made our way to the beach.  One must have priorities.  We rented more chairs on the beach and laid in the sun for about an hour and a half, then changed back into our street clothes.

Next we did a little shopping in Amalfi, stopping at beautiful little stores.  Hannah bought a new green bag which looks very cute.  Oh, and we had gelato!  Crème di limone.  Soooooo good.

We also took a tour of the Amalfi Cathedral which is dedicated to the apostle, St. Andrew (the first called to follow by Jesus).  It is said that the saint’s head and some other bones are kept in a reliquary here.  This is often the case with many old Catholic cities that have a patron saint.  It gives them a sense that their city is blessed and holy.

Then it was back to the bikes!!  Last time I rode, we were so shaken by my crashes that we didn’t do much besides go to Amalfi and back.  This time, we headed farther from Positano, zooming along the windey highway, dodging other cars and scooters, stopping occasionally to see one magnificent view after another.  We were high from the wind and the sun and the beauty of it all.  All that smiling we did risked major bugs-in-teeth but we were living on the edge, baby! 

We drove through Atrani, Ravello, Minori, Maiori all the way to Capo d’Orso.  We actually made it so far that we could see the city of Salerno!  At that point we took more beautiful photos, then decided to head back before it started to get dark.

On the way back we stopped in Praiano and ate pizza and Fanta while we watched the sun go down on the Mediterranean.

Can you possibly beat that?  Honestly?  I don’t think so. 

Oh – and neither of us crashed.  Not once.  Not even close!  Unless you count the time when Hannah tried to pass a car in a tunnel and almost hit a van head-on.  But hardly close!

We have to go continue being blissed out. 

Love you all!

Side Note: Best Dinner in Positano

We have been getting dressed up for dinner – puttin’ on our fancy dresses (yes, I said dresses) and puttin’ on airs.  This place is fancy in general.  But last night after all that cold rain, we just felt like feeling comfortable.  So we dressed in our jeans/capris, put on sweaters (and my new sandals from Capri) and headed down to the beach area for our last big supper in Positano.

My favorite restaurant is the lower section of a place called Baca di Bucco.  It’s my fav not necessarily because of the food, but because it happens to have the perfect view of the town from the beach.  They do pretty decent food, though and last night was proof of that.

We started with a common favorite – bruschetta con pomodorini (tiny tomatoes), which was followed by linguini with lobster.

NOTE:  If you plan on ordering any seafood that requires hands-on work that is drenched in marinara sauce and butter, do not wear white.  And wear a bib. Actually, we had an awesome idea for a scarf/bib kind of a thing that looks fancy but still catches spills before it hits your clothes.  I don’t want to say too much until we get the patent.

After the lobster dish, we had our first try of swordfish.  Also drenched in butter and lemon juice, the swordfish was grilled and soooo yummy.

But wait, there’s more.  After dinner we ordered this … this … creamy piece of heaven made of pistachios and Bavarian cream.  It looked like a cheesecake, but was green with toasted pistachios on top.  It was salty and sweet and had about five different textures from light and fluffy to chewy to crunchy.  Unbelievable.  This was accompanied by a sweet desert wine made from honey.

On the way back to our room, we bought these little chocolate shot glasses for our limoncello.   YUM!  

Could you think of a better evening?

Are we back in Portland?

Buongiorno!  Come state, tutti?

If you read yesterday's blog, you know that we postponed our trip to Capri due to a "strike" on the island. Today it appeared that the strike is over, power to the people!  So we got our tickets this morning and boarded a boat for the island.

About five minutes before we boarded the boat, it started to rain.  At first, it was sort of a light drizzle.  By the time we got off the boat on the island, it was a constant, steady rain.  It felt like we were back in Portland. What the heck!

Capri is a beautiful rocky island a couple miles off the coast by Sorrento.  It is known for its grotto caves -- there are two popular grottos named after their primary colors (azzuro or blue grotto, and the emerald grotto), as well as some intensely upscale shopping at the top of the island.  

Upon arrival, we immediately bought an umbrella which turned out to be our best purchase of the day.  The second thing we did was find the tram that would take us to the top of the island.  Since the weather was so bad, we figured seeing the grottos would not be a good idea.  They are right on the water, and the sea tends to get a little "angry" when it's this rainy out.  

By the time we reached the top via tram, we were starting to get a little peckish.  We figured, let's find a less expensive restaurant to eat a bite and refresh before we deal with more rain.  We must have walked for 20 minutes, looking at menus and trying to find a meal we could eat for under $70.  Seriously.

We finally went down a back alley to a place that we later realized catered to Asian tour groups.  

A little note here:  if the walkway to the restaurant smells like poop wrapped in dead fish, that should be a sign.  Did we go in?  Did we wait around to be seated?  Did we demand to be seated?  Why yes.  Yes, we did.

We ordered simple ravioli and fried calimari and shrimp.  What we got were things with eyes.  Lots of eyes.  There were whole shrimp -- with eyes -- as well as tiny little fish that were about the size of sardines, deep fried, with eyes.

We ate a lot of bread.  They even made the chocolate cake taste bad.  How does that happen here in Italy???

We ate as quickly as we could among the cacophony of tour groups that were seated around us.  It was a little bit difficult to catch the waiter's attention because he was trying to say the few words in English that folks might understand.  "Knife!  Knife!  Knife!"  "Pizza!  Pizza!  Pizza!"

We left via the cesspool walkway and up another flight of stairs.  I asked Hannah if we could go a little slower.  "Walking up stairs after eating fishheads tastes bad."

We spent the rest of the afternoon huddled under our single green umbrella, dodging puddles and looking in windows of very expensive shops -- Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana -- drooling a little. 

Hannah tried on some clothes at the Benetton store.  I tried on a Rolex watch that had a 4,600 Euro price tag!  I know I shouldn't have tried it on, but I just wanted to say I did.  It was NICE.  It felt so good -- kinda heavy.  But so is a car.

We ended up escaping with the umbrella and a new pair of sandals for me from the Benetton store.  Not too bad.

Then we headed back down to the pier to wait for our boat home.  We stopped and asked a dock worker where we should wait for our particular boat, and he said dock #13.  So we did.  We waited for 45 minutes.  We waited until the ship at dock 13 boarded -- which was headed for SORRENTO and not Positano.  We waited until the ship we were supposed to take left the marina.

I was livid.  We ASKED.  So we went back to the little dude who told us where to wait and pointed to our ticket.  He looked at it as if to say, "Oh!  You wanted to go to POSITANO."  GRRR.  Then we went back to the ticket office and bought ANOTHER ticket on another boat with another company.  It was that or take a boat to Sorrento and then take another SITA bus back.  Honestly, we'd pay anything not to take a bus again.

Now it's time for dinner here.  Love to you all!

I'm a Little Bit History, You're a Little Bit Shop n' Stroll

We've realized that Hannah and I enjoy some of the same things in travel, as well as some very different things.  For example, we are both enjoying the food, the people, the weather, etc.  I also enjoy the historical aspect of travel, while Hannah enjoys visiting the shops.  It's definitely helpful to know this kind of thing so that we can ensure that each of us has a chance to enjoy what is important to us.  Know your travel buddy!

Today's excursion of the day was intended to be visiting the Isle of Capri, which lies off the tip of the Amalfi Coast/Sorrento peninsula.  So we had our usual breakfast, got our stuff together, and headed to the shacks on the beach that sell tickets to various ports around the area.  

Apparently today (Sunday), the dock workers on Capri decided that they did not want to work on Sunday, so they went on strike.  Well, they may have had other reasons but that sounds as good as any other reason when you don't get to go on your day excursion.  We could have boarded a boat, but we  couldn't have gotten off the boat.

Instead, we chose another pre-planned day trip to Pompeii, the ancient city that was buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in the first century AD.

In order to get to Pompeii, we had to backtrack a bit.  We bought tickets and waited to board a SITA bus (the bus line that serves the towns in the area) on the main road in Positano.  While there, a rather severe looking woman with three other people (another severe woman and two men) walked up to me and started asking me questions in Italian.  The cool thing was, I understood almost 20% of what she said!  I sort of pretended I understood 85%.  I answered her questions - this was the bus stop, we were going to Sorrento ... and that I really didn't know when the bus was coming.  She may have been asking where I got my shoes (doubtfully), but I really don't have any idea.  I just shrugged and said, "non lo so."  Yay me!

When the bus arrived we took our seats and held on for the trip.  I may have described this bus ride before -- very windey roads, taken at a very high speed, with a lot of breaking and speeding up along the way. Oh, and honking.  This time around, it didn't sit quite so well with Hannah.  After 30 minutes of that carnival ride, she was ready to get off.  Or else.

Luckily, we arrived at our destination 5 minutes before she lost her pears and nutella. 

We took a little breather, stretched our legs, ate some of our picnic lunch, and then took the city train to Pompeii.

The regular city train (kind of like MAX in Portland) stops right at Pompeii's city gate.  Literally.  We bought tickets and walked up the large cobblestones into the ancient city.

Pompeii is 1600 acres of incredibly preserved city.  It is one of our best examples of ancient culture.  When Vesuvius blew, it buried Pompeii -- as well as nearby Herculeum -- in dust, small rocks and mud.  It did so very quickly so that even the unfortunates who lost their lives were preserved very well over the centuries.  They've been rebuilding the city since its discovery so that visitors can understand how people lived.

We spent a good three hours going through our guidebook and seeing a lot of the sights -- a gladiator barracks, amphitheaters, typical roman homes, a brothel (probably the most visited attraction there), and temples.  One of my favorite views is in the forum (the center of city government/religion) where you can see Vesuvius still looming -- although very quietly -- so close above the Temple of Apollo.

When it was time to leave, it was time for gelato!  Hannah got a really good limone gelato cone from a Polish fella trying to strike up a conversation with her in Italian about Alaska.  

Our train ride back dropped us off at Sorrento, so we decided to do a little shoppin'!  John Huff and I stayed in Sorrento a few years back and had a great time, but it seems we spent more time at the laundromat and getting the worst haircut of my life (I looked like a dirty q-tip) than we did seeing the historical parts of town.  This time Hannah took the lead, so she sniffed out some beautiful streets that had a multitude of beautiful shops and very few cars (a rarity here).

Before we got back on the bus, we picked up some seasick pills and some Italian cheetos which are called TamTams.  Sorry, Italy, Cheetos are better.

This time around the seasick meds made us REALLY sleepy.  So rather than getting fancy and going out to dinner, we got takeout pizza, hamburger and a bottle of wine.  When we returned to the hotel room to watch a movie and eat, we realized that the hamburger was JUST A HAMBURGER.  No bread, nothing else.  Just the meat pattie.  WHICH WAS DELICIOUS.  So was the pizza.  And the wine.  And the limoncello.  You get the picture.  It was all good, people.

That's it for today.  Until next time!  Muah!

Bright sunshiney day

Heaven! Im in heaven!

 Where to begin? Today was an amazing day and still is. After a very tastey dinner last night, a little wine and a good night's sleep, we woke today around 9:30 and headed downstairs for breakfast (colazione). On our small terrace with the sun peeking at us over the hills, we ate croissant (with nutella, of course) sliced meat, yogurt, juice and caffe latte.

Since it was such a beautiful morning, we decided to make use of the sunshine and start our day by kayaking on the Mediterranean Sea. So we made a visit to our local boatman (the writer of the new holiday symphony, the Nut Scratcher), and rented a plastic tandem kayak.

Either we looked very sporty, or they just figure most people know how to ride a kayak. Cause the minute we sat down (or the minute I wedged my hips into the unforgiving narrow plastic seat), they pushed us out to sea and gave us a quick wave. No asking if we know how to paddle or swim. NO telling us where we should or shouldn't go.

We figured it out well enough, though. We paddled around the coast, feeling the roll of the light waves and gazing up at the tall wind-carved rocks. So beautiful. We paddled and relaxed in the kayak for about an hour before our butts/legs fell asleep so we headed back to our beach.  We dismounted (I somewhat awkwardly) the kayak and then had to stand in the water for about 5 minutes until our legs woke up again.

The beach in Positano is limited -- there are little beach areas surrounded by rocks; so of course they can get a little bit crowded. That is why sections of them are fenced off and allowed only for people who pay a daily rate of 5-10 Euro. We paid the fee and got a very nice spot with lounge chairs, table and umbrella.

When it came time for lunch, I headed to a local grocery store to grab some food. At that particular time, a large group of American teenagers had flocked in to get sandwiches made at the deli counter. All of them were standing in line, wondering what to do. I walked in, grabbed some beverages out of a cooler and stood by the deli where I was acknowledged by one of the workers who took my order. Then one of the teenage girls said, "is this the line?" I told her, "Actually, people don't get in line in Italy. You go where there is room and order when you can." "Ooohhh!" she said, then went back to her friends to relay the new information.

We had a really good lunch -- sandwiches with pancetta, fresh mozarella, olive oil, fresh cherries, pringles, and pineapple bacardi coolers. Hannah took a little cooling-off break by wading into the sea a bit (which isn't warm really). Walking the 10 meters from the chairs to the water isn't as easy as it sounds. The beaches here are primarily pebble beaches, covered with small rocks more than sand. So walking is awkward and slightly painful without shoes. Everybody on the beach, except those who work there, look like a swarm of invalids.

Once she got to the water it was all downhill. Literally - the bottom drops pretty quickly. Which also made it frantically awkward to get away from the jellyfish that seemed remarkably attracted to her.

After several hours of sunbathing, we headed leisurely back through town to our hotel, stopping occasionally at shops to browse shoes (I've been borrowing Hannah's flip flops since my sandals have literally been eating my feet -- I have 7 blisters currently), limoncello, and clothes.

Here in Positano, it is very easy to appreciate il Dolce far niente -- the Italian phrase for the sweetness of doing nothing. We Americans have a hard time doing this without pangs of guilt or shame. Hannah is panicking that she doesn't have any mathematical papers to read or grade. So we're being schooled in it big time here. And it's awesome.