We wrapped up our last full day in D.C. today. I was raised in a family that wrapped up every meal with dessert. The meals were always home cooked, nutritious and satisfying and the desserts were also of the same caliber, perhaps not always nutritious. This developed in me the sense that no matter how wonderful and or filling the meal, it was never complete if it lacked dessert. Today was that dessert on a very full and satisfying meal. The culmination, or dessert, of this incredible visit to the heart of our government started with a breakfast at the Glenn farm. After we cleaned up from breakfast we loaded up the two vans for church. As one van went to Mass and the other to the Glenn’s Presbyterian church, I was provided, once again, the poignant reminder that the Carden Country School is made up of Catholic and Protestant families, that not just tolerate each other but also truly love, understand, and enjoy each other and while we would be separating the group for the first time in 9 days, we were not truly separating, just going in slightly different places and would soon be back together. Unlike my meals with dessert, this is not the behavior with which I was raised. As the vans drove down the driveways I was immensely grateful for the diversity of Carden and the love and richness this brings both to my family and me.
This trip has been 10 days of firsts for me. At the end of these innumerable firsts, I had the privilege of worshipping with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their spiritual family at Fourth Presbyterian. The fact that I was also with my Carden family made it all the more special. Worshipping with people with whom I am not accustomed to worshipping and in foreign places is always a significant reminder to me of what a wonderful family I am apart of with God as my father. After Church, much of the group went to the Holocaust Museum. Having been to the Dachau Concentration camp, I was looking forward to experiencing this part of our past from an American perspective. My expectations were not too lofty. As I worked my way through this amazing museum, I was moved by how attentive and thoughtful our students were and troubled by my own discomfort as I walked through much of the museum as an American and non-Jew with a group of Jews. I found that my experience at Dachau with my German friends had given me an air of superiority. While being of German decent, I was indeed an American and part of the liberating country. While that is still true, this experience served to remind me that I am not Jewish and as an American, while we did liberate, there were significant moments prior to 1945 that we turned a blind eye and cold shoulder to what was happening to our Jewish brothers and in these Jews presence I found myself shamed and uncomfortable.
After leaving the Holocaust Museum, I took five students to the Museum of Space and Flight. As I looked at the Wright Brothers first plane of 1905 and the bi-planes of WWI, the supersonic fighters of today, and travel to the moon I was absolutely stunned at the rapidity at which the technology of flight has progressed. My 42 years, plus a small handful, which I consider a blink of an eye, is all it took us to move from that simple wood and canvas powered kite to walking on the moon!
At 5:30, we gathered for a very nice meal in the heart of D.C., our last supper. An opportunity to once again break bread and fellowship together. We returned to the Farm, and had a double dessert, dessert for the stomach and the soul. We ate some cookies and chocolate Janis provided and sat in the living room with a crackling fire in the fireplace and discussed the events and impacts of the day and the week. My week long feelings of equal parts blessing and sense of being overwhelmed flooded over me as I listened to these young adults talk about what the had experienced in language that was all at once articulate, insightful and thoughtful. I cannot begin to convey the sense of gratitude I have for the experience of living and learning with these 12 Carden students and my fellow chaperones. Thank you to each and every person that made this trip possible. With sincere thankfulness, Mr. Krueger.