Katie and her camera…. « Bill's French Adventure In Food Wine & Life

There are many times when I become quickly annoyed by Katie taking pictures….too many pictures, always taking pictures…but the reality is I understand and secretly I appreciate what she is doing.  Capturing the moments with my family at Thanksgiving, a barbecue…us just hanging out or with her family up north.  These are things we will look back on many years from now and be happy to have a picture to put to the memory. I love her, and her camera, even if she often catches me in a picture with an incredibly annoyed look on my face. (mostly because she will make me stand by something that is completely meaningless, but she is so excited about it, and when she is smiling, I am smiling, even if nobody can see it)

Katie surprised me prior to her visit with a suggestion to go to Normandy, and do a World War 2 tour.  It was a surprise because it is something that means a lot to me but she has never really been interested in.  Not that she isn't interested in our history but more the war and military stuff.  In our 6+ years together we have had many conversations about these topics, of which I won't go into detail about, but it is a pretty touchy subject for us.  I loved that she suggested this trip and took my interest 100% into consideration when she brought it up.  With that, we went, rented a car and drove to the Normandy region, stayed in Bayeux France a beautiful town just shy of Omaha and Utah Beach. The first town to be liberated by the British Army after D-Day.  We went on a 9 hour tour of the area, with an amazing guide who was very passionate about the subject and showed us things and told us stories that we could have never discovered on our own.  One place we went was the Normandy American Cemetary and Memorial.  It was beyond words.  Katie had her camera and she took a picture that for me captures everything I was thinking and feeling at the time…I didn't know she was taking it, and for as much as I get annoyed, this one picture put our whole visit into context….

We all have friends and family in the current military force, or have read the articles about democracy in Libya, the outrage of Afghans over an american citizen burning a copy of the Quran.  All of these stories are relevant and could just as easily and just as quickly turn into a war on the magnitude of those days that were only 70 years ago.  That is recent history.  70 million people dying in less than one persons lifetime ago.  It is mind-blowing and being at these places only solidifies the reality of life.  We go through the days getting hung on things that aren't worth the stress we put into them, but could just as easily be facing true real life tragedy.  Being surrounded by so many graves reading the ages less than my own makes me think about my friends and family fighting our current wars and the emotions can't be put to words.  What can be put into words is the appreciation I have for those in my life and my life in and of itself.  Katie and her camera….

~ by wjshaffer on April 5, 2011. Posted in Paris, Pictures
Tags: afghanistan, american cemetary, bayeux, d-day, death, france, libya, military, normandy, omaha beach, Paris, tragedy, utah beach