To Berlin and back ...

To think it would be a week tomorrow BFL and I had been to Berlin and back.  We spent four days with friends who are now de-facto family since BFL is now formally godfather of young J (eldest child of German friends).

Berlin is a fascinating place.  It's a constantly developing city (hence the constant construction site) surrounded by a lot of woods which the Berliners strive hard to maintain.  Quite an ironic contrast if you think about it.  It reflects its historical roots of a city once divided in two - with two vastly different governing ideologies.

Although the city - East and West has since been reunited hence restoring the city's rightful place as its capital, the city still largely remembers its divided past.  A wall once ran through the city - dividing Berlin and its family of inhabitants into East and West.  The West, democratic.  The East, controlled by Russians.  Twenty four years later, although the remnants of the wall that ran through the city is largely left for touristic values - the city and its inhabitants still remembers yet have moved onwards and upwards.

The B. family for example - the friends that BFL have just been made godfather to their first born is testament to that restorative process of time and effort.  S is from the East.  Unlike the minority who rebelled and attempted escape, S grew up with the system and eventually became part of the ministry who were attempting to gain international recognition for their 'alternative ways of governance'.  C, his wife is West Berliner.  She grew up in a democratic state with the freedom to travel - an opportunity many of us take for granted until it's momentarily taken away.

S & C now lives what is now West Berlin, and their two young children will grow up only knowing the divided state as part of their city's moving and tortuous history.  The healing of the nations - lest we forget!

And that's what I drew from my observations of the history and life in Berlin.  The painful and hard past, part of what Berlin is has made it one of the most distinctive.  Yet in spite of such great division, it has moved onwards and upwards - creating new milestones and redeveloping itself as capital of Germany.

One must never give up striving onwards - no matter how challenging and demoralising times can sometimes be.  It's the only way upwards ... to not do so would spell a lifetime of being 'stuck' where one can neither go forward nor back.  And that would be indeed be hell ...