What do mashed potatoes, a Kansas Jayhawk and poppies all have in common? We'll get to the answer a little later, but first, I went on vacation. I went to Kansas. Yep, that's right Dorthy, red slippers and all. The sunflower state, the midwest, yep right smack dab in the middle. That's where I went on vacation, Kansas! Went to visit family! Good Ole Kansas City! Dorothy went home!
It's quite amazing how delicious homemade mashed potatoes can be when you do not have to cook them. Same recipe, same kind of potato, just a different place. Button on the ole' pants gettin' a little tight. Can't help eatin' four helpings of potatoes while on vacation. I'd like to say my whole family enjoyed those potatoes. Home grown cookin! Cooking is always best at home. Its' the family, the personal stories, the memories shared around the table!
Went to visit the ole' Alma mater, "The University of Kansas" and my friend the 'Jayhawk"! Rock Chalk Jayhawk! It's been awhile since I've been up on that hill at KU. My children wanted to see their possible future at this campus and so we toured like any tourist and took pictures and walked around on campus and conversed amongst ourselves about family, our stories and memories past.
Poppies. They sure don't look like the Kansas Sunflowers. I went to the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial. There were 9000 poppies planted at the museum, each representing 1000 persons who died in this war. This calculates to that over 9 million persons who lost their lives in this global conflict. Family lost, personal stories and memories of courage and honor.
My vacation of mash potatoes, Jayhawks and Poppies. What do these odd varieties have in common? The answer is family. Plain and simple. Think about potatoes for a minute. They grow in a field, cultivated by a family on a farm and passed around from table to table from generation to generation. Many stories told at many of those tables by many a family members. Jayhawks, a Kansas tradition but a tradition held by many. If one is not a Jayhawker I'm most certain one is of something else with a belief system that binds a group of people together, usually family. Then there is the poppy. A flower that represents 9 million lives lost to war. 9 million persons lost in 9 million families. A global war that effected 36 nations, 65 million men and women who had family, belief systems and personal stories of tragedy and loss.
Family, an epic journey that we go on with people that know our past and present. We are bound by that one little word "family".
The Holy family. Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The stories told at their table. The lives effected by these stories told. The wars fought to protect this belief. A transformative time in our world's history's past and present.
My vacation down the yellow brick road............
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