While Phil and Ben were visiting Grandma in Kansas, Phil went through zillions of slides that his father, the history professor, had taken to show in classes, but also to record family outings while on sabbatical. He texted me this picture with the caption, “Straddling the Prime Meridian in 1970.”
It’s hard to say what I love most about this picture. Is it Phil’s expression, which has not changed one bit in 55 years? Is it the outfit? Is it the dramatic straddling stance, chubby little hands confidently planted on knees? I wonder what he understood about the Prime Meridian at age four. Probably more than most of us do now. Phil (who was always Philip then) had a major head start on experiencing what a big world it is.
From a previous post (“Reflection”), you know that though I got a later start than Phil did, I continue to enjoy collecting memories of places we have been. Here is my list of adjectives for some of the countries we have visited in this big world (from the quiz on the “Reflections” post.)
- Adventuresome – Portugal
- Efficient – Sweden
- Exotic – Thailand
- Foreign – Morocco
- Friendly – Ireland
- Gregarious – Scotland
- Passionate – Italy
- Proper – England
- Relaxed – Canada
- Reliable – Denmark
- Reserved – France
- Rugged – Wales
- Rumpled – Argentina
- Societal – Japan
Straddling the kitchen doorway in 2003.