I mentioned in an earlier post about the differences I observed between city
life and village life. Until I actually saw this in person I had no idea, no
comprehension of what life was like in Poland. When I sat in the comfort of
my home and wrote a letter and inserted $10 or $20 into the envelope and
mailed it I couldn't conceive what the person was doing on the other side of
the Atlantic. I thought money was money but I now know that in places around
Poland the concept of money is very different from the USA. As Doug mentioned
in his posting about what he pays for a lunch in the USA compared with his
friends budget in Poland. It's different.
Even today -- a month after my trip to Poland - my mind constantly drifts
back to those beautiful, hard-working, poverty-level Poles. Images of the
family meals, the farms, the chickens and goats running about, cows mooing,
siting in churches, walking down dirt roads -- they all flutter about my
brain. I am a changed person as the result of the trip. I shall never be c
omplacent again, especially when it shall concern my homeland. I will never
see genealogy as a simple exercise done objectively by mail and text books
samples. My letters to priests will now be totally different from what I did
in the past. My correspondence style to relatives has changed. Inserting some
cash for a cousin henceforth will take on new proportions of meaning. I can
envision the dimly lit hallway lamp electric bill being paid in order to help
the budget for that month. I can envision a school field trip being paid that
may not have been possible. Any number of little things. And at special
holidays -- a card to say "Czesc."
Thanks for allowing me this personal time into your lives today.
__________
Kochajacy,
Bernard (Bernie) Sadowski
Seattle, WA.
Email: SadowskiB@aol.com
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