Was chased by a German shepherd in Germany, and then, later, went to the Berlin Wall

Never Done: Was chased by a German shepherd in Germany, and then, later, went to the Berlin Wall

Just because I am in Berlin doesn't mean I am not still training for the triathlon, so after I woke up early and did some yoga to loosen up, and went down to the park on the corner (men drinking beer at 9 AM and hanging out with their German shepherds) to find some WiFi (from the corner café) so I could blog and answer some emails, after all that I came back to the apartment and put on my running gear, and set out for something that (on the little map Christian left us) looked like a sports stadium, which I thought might have a running track.

It is beautiful in Berlin right now -- there are leaves on the trees, and blooms on all the bloomy ones as well, so with just shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, I ran along the cobblestone street where I'm staying, and back through the park with the guys, the beers, and the dogs, and past the kids playing basketball, when ... what? What's that? Damn, there is an actual German shepherd chasing me, in actual Germany. Kathleen, who loves dogs, had already remarked how well-behaved the dogs are here. They are not on leashes, and they tend to stay close and obedient to their people. So when I ran past this one, it didn't actually occur to me that it might give chase, but its owners weren't demanding much obedience. I used to be extremely scared of dogs (having been bitten in the face like happens in a cartoon, when my entire face was in between the dog's jaws) and I have worked hard on my relationships to individual dogs, and to the species as a whole, and in fact I am less scared and more relaxed with them than I used to be. And guess what? It turns out that I'm even less scared and more relaxed when I'm in Germany and a German shepherd comes after me. With an authoritative "Nein!" and a strong arm gesturing away from me, I deflected them, and kept on running. My heart rate was elevated more than it would normally be at the start of a run, so after a block (to get away from the dogs) I slowed down to a walk and started over again.

My goal was to run for 40 minutes, because we are ramping up the training. I've been at 30 minutes for three weeks now, and struggling (leg cramps) to increase 32. But I did well -- ran for 37 minutes, much of it on a beautiful outdoor track in that sports complex, amidst tall muscular blond German runners. It turns out that everything about Germany makes me feel like a Jew.

After lunch and a shower, Kathleen and I set out to find the remnants of the Berlin Wall. We're those people who only sort of understand the language, who would normally be relying on a smart phone but are instead piecing together directions from two little maps and one guidebook. But we're persistent, and we found Mauer (wall) park, along with the museum, documentation center, and chapel of Reconciliation -- all built on the site, to help contextualize the wall itself.

The first thing we noticed when we approached the museum was the Nutella crepe vendor. I know this happens all over the world -- that people sell comfort food at sites of great pain -- and in some cases like this one we get to see the ways that capitalism overtook communism. I know that is to be expected, and yet it still feels unexpected. I did my best to just ignore it, and to focus on the historical information given on each floor of the tower we were climbing, to get to a lookout, to look over Bernauerstrasse and onto the remnants of the wall. On the second floor of the tower, there is an exhibit with photo and text panels and video, that was actually the most clear and informative thing I'd ever seen about the wall.

They bricked in the windows of people's homes if they lived in buildings on the border street, and eventually evacuated and displaced them, and tore down the buildings. In response, some people jumped out windows on the West German side, and escaped. We saw video of that. We also saw lots of video and photo images of German shepherds guarding the wall. But what touched me most were the images of people who were separated from one side to another. People who would wave to each other and cry, and try to communicate through arm gestures. People who presumably used to live with one another, who now so close, and yet so far from one another.

When we went down and actually touched the wall, I became enraged. Enraged that anyone thinks this is a good idea. That the U.S. built a wall between Mexico and Arizona, that Israel has walled off Palestine. Have we not learned that this is repressive and ineffective? That people will rise to fight any level of oppression? That people will risk their lives to connect with the people they need to be connected to? Have we learned nothing?