Faith Venture

I haven’t missed two posts in a row in a very long time. We vacationed in Scotland for over a week. We returned from 67-70 deg F temperature to 92 deg F with high humidity and lots of pollen. I was congested, mistakenly took some Benadryl which enabled me to sleep all day Friday. I need to pitch that stuff from my medicine cabinet.

Yes, Scotland should be on your list of places to visit. Considering that the forts close to where I grew up were remnants of wooden outposts along the Ohio/Indiana border built by General “Mad” Anthony Wayne in the 1790s, walking through a Roman fort (OK, in England) built around 200 AD, multiple abbeys built around the year 1000, and accounts of the rich history of Scotland were memorable.

Also that the tour guides unanimously voted thumbs down on Braveheart. One guide generously allowed that Mel Gibson in no way was trying to be historical. For one thing, Lowlanders did not wear kilts in the time of William Wallace. And “Braveheart” referred to Robert the Bruce who died on a pilgrimage. It seems that they cut his heart out, put it in a box, intending to send it to (I believe) Jerusalem to finish the pilgrimage. The heart didn’t make it there. Was found some years later. They called it Braveheart.

You’re wondering about curiosity?

I may have mentioned before that I am almost infinitely curious. If curiosity killed the cat, as the saying goes, I’ve been burned. But I still want to know a lot about a lot of things. We are privileged to be able to make these trips. We began 2025 in New Zealand, have visited Nova Scotia, and now Scotland. In between we were in Charlottesville and Williamsburg, Virginia. Later we’ll have a vacation in Hilton Head.

Another bit of privilege—our son is a United Captain flying 757s. He flew our flight to Scotland.  That’s also pretty cool.

Philosophers from ancient times have written about what constitutes a good life. I love it when modern science validates ancient wisdom. This link points to a report about a study that suggests having a life of curiosity, perspective-changing experiences leads to a well lived life. Certainly working with people from many countries and visiting more than 20 other countries changed a socially inept country boy into a slightly less socially inept, but more understanding, adult. It’s been good.

Be curious, not judgmental. (See the next post.)

This entry was posted on July 26, 2025 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Attitude. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.