New meets Ancient

This is one of my favorite pictures and it led to one of the most thoughful gifts I have received....from Chelta.

It was only a few years ago when I found this amongst my father's trunk full of slides and photos. I had never seen it before. When I was told the little dude was me I was so glad that I had some momento of Iraq. We lived there in late 60's and were eventually evacuated due to the 6 day war. But before that happened, my parents, who had a penchant for all things cultural, had the good sense to take some excursions and family field trip while there. This was one of those. I do not know the name of the place, but it was just a really cool place that they stopped one afternoon and with the setting moon and snapped this shot of these ruins.

I have always liked the juxtaposition of the "new" (me) against the "old" (ruins)..... There is something about the innocence and naivete of the small child being in the forefront of the dramatic backdrop of ruins. Surely battles have been fought here, hordes of people have passed through these walls each with their own story written by each passing footprint. Time has eroded the structure, but it hasn't diminished the majesty and noble "personality" it still maintains. Sometimes Americans make reference to "old" things in this country....They don't really know what old is.....and then there is "ancient". To me this feels....."ancient".

I can't tell you how delighted I was when Chelta surprised me with a valentines gift of a wonderful 18" x 24"enlarged photo with crystal clear colors. She had taken that slide from my Dad which was cracked and old, then had it digitally recreated and retouched. It hangs in my home as a constant reminder of some of the cool places we were able to experience.