The WRIGHT BROTHER and MY GRANDPA

Which is the relationship between the WRIGHT BROTHERS (the 2 brothers who built the first airplane) and my GRANDPA? If you would have asked me this question yesterday most likely my answer would have been "nothing" ... I mean ... my grandpa flew only once ... once in the sense of one way from Milan to Naples in Italy ... and on the way back he decided to through away the return ticket and buy a train ticket ... :)

OK. One thing at a time. Let's start from the alarm clock.

You know when ... you are waking up on Sunday and you want to blow up all the plans you did for that day?!? This is pretty much what happened to me this morning when I woke up. Yesterday night I planned, for today, a visit to an other couple of museums in DC ... the NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM (WWW.NASM.SI.EDU/MUSEUM ) and the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INDIAN (WWW.NMAI.SI.EDU) . This morning when I woke up I looked through the window and I saw this gorgeous, perfect blue sky and I realized that all this "museum idea" was stinking ... I mean ... I am already spending 5 days a week in a no-window-office ... yesterday it did rain basically all day ... and today with this perfect sky I am going all day in a museum?!? Am I stupid?!? Apparently yes ... :) ... I decided to stick to my plan ... I thought that, in any case, I would have always the chance to do something different in DC.

In 1 hour I am in DC. Usual parking lot. The only one I can find without spending 2 hours driving through the huge-no-tunr-left DC Blvds. Usual tight security check at the entrance ... need to open the trunk, electronic sniffing for explosives ... something I was used when I was living in Israel ... not anymore here in US ... but after 3 weekends in DC I got used again ... :) In 5 minutes I am in front of the AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM. A long line at the entrance. But it is only for an other security check. Why am I going in? Come on Andrea ... such a beautiful day ... and I have already seen the MUSEUM OF FLIGHT in SEATTLE (WWW.MUSEUMOFFLIGHT.ORG) which is really incredible ... this can't beat that one ... mmm ... OK ... stop complaining Andrea ... let's go inside and check. I am going through the different rooms and I am impressed and delighted by the airplanes, rockets, propellers, engines ... this is really good stuff ... but again ... it is a kind of cold ... at the end of the day they these are dead pieces ... that's why they are in a museum ... I am getting more excited when I am flying ... that is a plane alive, with real people, with hostesses, 33,000f above the sea leveldrinking coffee, and with a certain risk to end up in a disaster ... here the airplanes are hanging from the ceiling like my grandma chandelier ... it is odead stuff ... there is no soul ... anyway great cimitery ... mmmm ... exhibition ... there are unique pieces ... I am browsing when suddenly ...

... a bicycle ...

... a bicycle!? What is doing a bicycle in the SPACE MUSEUM!? It is not from the movie ET ... this is pretty old ... but really cool ... I am reading the caption on the plate ... it is one of the 5 still existing pieces produced from the WRIGHT BROTHERS in their workshop in North Carolina ... can you believe that? These 2 brothers started from a bicycle workshop (before that they were actually running a RENT-A-BIKE shop) and manage to build the first flying machine ... an airplane ... isn't that incredible!? I just get excited ... I can imagine myself still doing something incredible out of my life ... I want to do something more ... I want to make the difference in my life and in the life of the people around me ... mmmm ... is that too much!? Yes ... it is just a dream ... but again ... only people who dream can make something. It is not enough. Sure. You need skills, you need luck, you need passion, you need in the right place in the right moment ... but again you need also to dream ... and I can easily do that ... :)

... all excited for this old bicycle I am going through the other rooms ... interesting ... the APOLLO modules, a SATELLITE, AIRPLANES of all sizes and periods, the AUTOMOBILE that drove on the moon ... cool ... but I a still thinking to that bicycle ... and to the jump to the flying machine ... :) ... an other rocket ... black and white ... this is pretty beaten ...

...looks really old ... it is a V2 ... the rocket used from the German Aviation to bomb London and other cities like Brussels, Belgium at the end of WWII ... I know that story ... but what is this picture ... these is a picture of concentration camp prisoners ... the caption says that during WWII the concentration camp prisoners kept under unbearably harsh working conditions built them in hidden tunnels and thousands of them died during this process ... unfortunately I know also this story ... my grandpa was one of them ... how many times he told me these stories ... he was actually working in one of these V2 tunels ... fortunately for me (my mom was born 2 years after the end of WWII) ... he didn't die in one of those tunnels and he was liberated in time ... and today he is 88 years old ... a little bit deaf but still a great grandpa ... he hates the war and any type of army (he was in the Italian Army and when Italy surrendered to the allies he was basically captured and became a POW ... from there 2 years in concentration-labor camp in Germany) ... I am looking again to that picture ...

... I am sooooo lucky to be here ... what if the Americans wouldn't liberate the camp, what if ... I can't think about it ... :o ... for sure I wouldn't be here to watch this picture today ... so you need to be lucky in life? For sure! But can't do anything for the luck ... it is just coming. But I know also that one of the reasons (not the only one) why my grandpa survived was for his love for life, his passion for life, his capacity to dream that one day he would be able to leave that camp and that craziness ... and you know what? After 50 years I have wonderful German friends, I have a German roommate in LA ... I simply can't think that for 2,000 years, in Europe, we killed each over forever ... so sad ... and for what!? I don't know! I mean I know ... greed, religion, power, money, because our King or our Dictator told us to do so ... but I can't believe it ... how many people had been killed, how many kids never saw this wonderful world ... !?!

I am leaving the AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM thinking about all these things ... I am closing my eyes and I imagine Leif, my German roommate, smiling at me while were are drinking a beer together in the porch after a Saturday night playing Foosball ... I am out ... and I see this wonderful blue sky ... I AM SO LUCKY ... and I don't want to waste even one second of my life ... I want to live with all the passion and that I have inside ... I LOVE MY LIFE!

Again ... which is the relationship between a WRIGHT BROTHERS and my GRANDPA? In one sentence? Probably THE LOVE AND THE PASSION FOR LIFE ...