What I want on my birthday (swunked from sartorias - never let a good idea go to waste)

[fpb]

So, tomorrow I turn 46.

Here is my wish, for anyone dropping by, who has a few extra seconds: you share with me some special memory. This was sartorias' suggestion, which I cannot improve upon: I know how busy people are. It doesn't have to be long. One good thing about having a brain wired for image is that the briefest reference to, say, "The day i saw a triple rainbow" brings immediately to mind the day when I was ten that I saw a triple rainbow. There I am on my bike, riding downhill as fast as I can because the biggest rainbow ends, so clearly, right where Linda C lives, at the bottom of the hill below school, where two streets converge...the light is silvery-gray, and smells of wet pavement and grass, there are three levels of clouds and all of them ragged. How I loved the magic of that day--even if the end of the rainbow kept moving. But somehow it was better to never find the end.

And incidentally: happy birthday to bdunbar and to the lovely purple_mirie!

Comments

[tashmania.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday to yooou!

It just so happens the first memory that came into my mind upon reading this was from the first time I went to Rome! It must be the effect you have on me, haha!

Anyway, onwards. The first day after we arrived, we decided to go for a walk around the city near our hotel. I still remember walking down the road, and stopping dead when I realised I was looking upon the ruins of the ancient forum. I saw the ruins of Curia, the temple of Vesta, the main square; it took so long to just take it all in. It was at that moment that it clicked that everything I'd read about in books, all I'd studied at school, it had existed, it was real. Two thousand years ago, people had lived, walked, prayed, loved and lost in the very place that I was now looking upon. History became real for me, if you will, and it just blew me away. I treasure that memory.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

On the other hand (see above), I have no trouble at all understanding this one. It is an experience that Rome's own citizens often have. You know you are a Roman when you have said at least once: "More often than not, this city drives me mad. But every now and then I just stop and feel overwhelmed by how beautiful it is." Or rather, "how beautiful she is" - Rome is always, definitely, female. And not just beautiful, but laden with history and meaning. Incidentally, I had a somewhat similar experience visiting a few local temples in Madras and Bangalore.

Thank you.