GENEVA "HOMECOMING", Thurs., June 23, Geneva & a poem

Arrival in Geneva brought a flood of strange feelings:
*excitement to recall a life-changing year when I studied at the U of Geneva, 1960-61
*Curiosity to see how things have changed over 50 years. Europe was "behind" the US in 1960. Today it's fully as modern and beyond.
*A touch of sadness that I could not share this with my parents, who were so supportive of my going overseas at a young age.
*Disappointment that I have lost contact with everyone who I knew there - with whom I could compare notes.
* Realization that although I traveled widely in Switzerland and Europe and beyond in 1960-61, my world in Geneva was very small. My route was not much more than from university to home!

Following a city-wide tour which introduced us to an overview of this international city, we started our own exploration.

UNIVERSITY:
We walked around Bastion Park in which the 452-year-old university is located. The outside building walls are the same - with some sections cleaned, some not. The classroom looked the same except for the added LCD (but still chalk and blackboards!).

We spent time reviewing the history depicted in the famed Reformation Wall built into the Vieux Ville wall at the edge of the park. I recalled that it was my interest in Calvin's theocracy that prompted me to select the U of Geneva.

MY STREET
I retraced my steps from the university to Avenue Champel and found a few familiar markings, though many of the buildings have been replaced with modern condos and apartments or retail shops with bright colored awnings - and lots of motorcycles and cars, replacing mostly bikes and a few cars.

JET D'EAU

Then we took a lovely solar-powered tiny train along the south lakeside - past the Flower clock (which has the largest second hand of any clock in the world) and the JET D'EAU, built in 1880 to regulate water pressure in the city, now an icon of the city.

MANSIONS AND PARKS
We also took a tiny train along the north side of the lake past beautiful gardens and mansions of the last couple of centuries. I realized that this was all there 50 years ago (except for the tourist train and the souvenir stands at the bridge), but I'd missed it. (My head was in books and trying to learn French, I guess!).


John has been writing poems as we go. Here's his poem for today:

GEN'S JET D 'EAU
Geneva's jet flys -
High into the skies.
But then it fades
Like mists over the bay's
Waters from which it came.

But that symbol of regular powerful sprays
Is a symbol of her orgasmic ways,
Constantly building up pressure
In a spirit of reform
From which Calvin and Knox were born -
A new baptism of religious and political spirit
And a personal humanitarianism.

There is a pulse here, a throbbing pressure below
That keeps a constant pressure flow
For a creative reformation in freedom, justice, enterprise and compassion.

It fills the lungs of freedom;
It keeps the artery flow.
One should regularly back to Geneva go!





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Location:City tour of Geneva