Little Town, Big Influence

Herewith a little photograph of the town square of Tirschenreuth, Germany. I spent some years there, in my formative years between 9 to 13, a deeply Catholic region that had a huge influence on me. In those dark post-war years in a backward corner of Bavaria, I might as well have been time-traveling—because that region then had a culture that, for all intents and purposes (ignoring modern power and a few cars) might as well have been medieval. There is nothing like experience, as I keep emphasizing on this blog. Thus there is nothing like living a tradition to get to know it viscerally. I view such experiences—especially when they happen naturally—as gifts.