Vespa 300 GTE Touring Motor Scooter

I am so pleased to be a Vespa owner.I woke up this morning and looked out to see the Vespa parked beside my Harley Electroglide and felt right with the world.  God is good all of the time.

The Harley Electriguide is the biggest Harley made. I rode it to Sturges South Dakota and back in 2013.  Nothing beats the Harley for highway driving.  However, it’s rather big for the city. And nothing beats the Vespa for the city. 

I know cyclists will tell you different. I bicycled across Europe with a gorgeous woman companion in my 20’s. I was young and athletic then. I’ve since had several bicycles and loved my latest, the Rad Electric Bicycle. But I’ve been a fan of scooters since I rented my first, in my 20’s riding about Hawaii and later in Cozumel, Mexico, having so much more fun. 

My first scooter was an Aprilia 50 cc which I bought when I lived in the Vancouver West end.  The Italians are famous for their scooters and motorcycles, world reknowned for their performance design and workmanship.   The next scooter I had was the amazing Honda Ruckus. The Japanese captured the American market with motorcycles in the 60‘s and 70‘s. My brother loved his Yamaha 125, back when the 100 to 150 cc machines were all the rage.  The big bikes, like the HD and Triumph 1200‘s used in WWII only became popular for cruising in later years. My HD Electriglide is 1600 cc and can carry myself, Laura and the kitchen sink at high speeds, all day without a care.

I passed my Honda 50 cc Ruckus onto Laura.  We both truly loved it as the ultimate inner city get about. It only weakness was the lack of power going  over Vancouver bridges. I‘d graduated to a Buell Blast 600 cc which had more than enough power to spare. I toured the whole of BC on that motorcycle.  

When I lived in Saipan, the jewel of the Northern Mariana Island I rented Vespas. Laura and I loved touring the island on a Vespa 250. It was grand riding through the jungles and coming out onto a stretch of endless white beaches with vast expanses of blue Pacific Ocean.   When we visitted Rome, not that long ago, I again rented a Vespa 250.  It was one of our favourite days travelling around  the ancient picturesque city, scootering from cathedral to cathedral to pray at the these famous sites of the most holy of relics.  It was a bit gruesome, finding the head of one saint at one magnificent cathedral and the feet at architectural.  The Vespa made it all so Italian. Really quite spiritual.  Cobblestone roads made by the Romans.  Places where St. Paul had walked.

Now I’m the owner of a Vespa 300 GTE Touring motorscooter and I’m thrilled.  

In Vancouver, it’s an unspoken rule that anyone on a motorcycle is fair game.   The trouble is female vegetarian yoga pant wearing liberal voters Huffington Post readers, with their unowned aggression in deep denial of their road rage loathing all things male, unfortunately, perceive motorcycles as masculine, It’s a life and death struggle with their constant negligence and insistence “I just didn’t see him, (before I smashed him like a bug with my Volvo SUV).”  By contrast scooters are treated like bicycles, somehow seen as not target worthy  metrosexual.  They are less triggering to the liberal arts college grads.  Riding a motorcycle in Vancouver is a serious matter. I’ve even a heard a Hell’s Angel say he wouldn’t ride his Harley downtown because of the poor drivers.  Vancouver drivers are definitely the worst in the world but they are equally passive aggressive.  However, they simply don’t target scooters.  Admittedly when I’m driving my Harley, Steppenwolf, ‘Born to be Wild’ plays in my head while  on the Vespa I’m hear opera arias or in the summer sun,  the Beach Boys.  People actually smile at me rather.  Part of it is that they don’t know my Vespa as gas powered.  Simply polluted with propaganda they believe electricity, even if coal generated, is ‘clean’  while all things gas is ‘dirty’.  Vespa even has an Electrica version and Harley Davidson has just put out an Electric 500 cc motorcycle

My Vespa maroon and sparkling which rich mahogany brown leather seats.   My Harley is black and I geared  up in black armoured clothing. I bought the Vespa wearing shorts, tshirt and sandals. I wore a helmet. When I got home I added armoured gloves. Once a surgeon and musician hands are forever important. The fact is I’d mostly miss the ability to type these days. I just don’t feel I need to wear leather on a scooter. My Harley is 800 lbs and my scooter is 300 lbs. In the city I mostly do 30 to 60 km and routinely bicycled at 40 to 50 km/hour when I was younger.  So while the chance of major injury remains it’s not the same as when I’m on the Harley on the highway doing 120 mph.  The Vespa 300’s top speed is 135 km/hr.  Admittedly less than a day old, I’ve had it over a hundred already.  I was only wearing t shirt and shorts and helmet and being stupid but it’s not at all like the day I took my Harley up to 140 mph and chickened out finding just how fast it would go. It goes a lot faster but I’ll never know. What I confirmed with the Vespa is that it really can go on the freeway.  If I plan on touring I’ll at least wear jeans and jacket.  Armour protects joints at higher speeds. 

The truth of the matter is I really like slower speeds on the Vespa. Sitting upright it’s a wonderful platform for sightseeing and looking about.  I have already taken it out to a country trail to confirm that it’s just fine on country roads. I’m so looking forwards to taking mine camping and having a camera or a bow along as I explore. Laura enjoyed riding on the back of the Vespa for a spin so it , will be fun again to ride with her about the city. We rode all over the province together on my HD Roadster but she‘s lost interest in the highway the road trips I still love with my HD Electroglide. The last year Gilbert, the cockapoo was my companion on the rides up the canyon to Merrit. 

Laura and even Gilbert, now,  much prefers riding out to the country in my Ford Truck with the Adventurer Camper. I carried the KTM 690 on the front or back so will now have to arrange to carry the wider but lighter Vespa the same way.   My Vespa is only 300 lbs. 

I’ve only had it a day and already made the trip to the market.  Like I found with all my previous scooters there’s lots of storage. My Vespa came with the box I’d had added to my previous scooters.  It holds too bags of groceries. The under the seat storage holds tools and there’s even a rack on the front and a dashboard storage compartment. There’s a little ring to hang bags from at my feet too. I love my Vespa. 

On the way back from the market and the post office I picked up burgers and fish and chips from the White Spot.  With Covid I’d had to take two post office trips a week and with the Harley I’d simply be less likely to make stops.  Not now. Scooters are just so convenient for multiple stops. I won’t even compare them to cars. Cars are cages and anyone who has ever had a scooter knows how much they open up a city.  Parking is everywhere and unlike a bicycle you don’t have to go through all that locking up and chaining up one has to do in Vancouver where a million bikes are stolen by the hour despite NASA titanium locks.  

Did I say I’m happy with my Vespa. Admittedly I’m happy with every vehicle. Vehicles are adventure to me.  Different vehicles, different adventures. I’m the same way with canoes, boats and yachts.  I’d really like a personal space craft. I asked my brilliant nuclear physicist engineer cousin I’m depending on him for a nuclear powered Harley Davidson with outer space capacity.  For now I’m really looking forward to more fun on the Vespa. Last night I took it for a spin too to check out the lights.  Perfect. Not only that but it was just quiet enough that I didn’t feel like I was disturbing the neighborhood. I don’t take the Harley out after 10 pm unless I have to and my KTM 690 was similarly, though not quite as loud. Loud pipes save lives.  Not the Vespa. It’s loud enough that Laura heard me come up beside her as she was driving the car but not so loud that I couldn’t go out for a late night spin and feel I wasn‘t  disrupting the neighbour hood. It‘s a trade off.

Metrovespa,the dealer was like a miniature, Trev Deely,  my Harley Dealership. Martin, the sales man was terrific, so friendly and helpful. The service department is there and they do everything as well as manage maintenance schedules like Trev does.  I confess,a major part of owning a two wheel machine, is trusting the service department. Harley and Honda have been great that way. Now I’m delighted to see the same kind of professionalism and concern in the Vespa service centre. The good news was that Vespa,  doesn’t require much service, less than Honda or Yamaha.  Vespa has always been known like Harley for being built sturdy.  Tough little machines.  Marten showed me where the oil inspection site was and added it doesn’t use a lot. He reviewed the walk around inspection bike owners need to know with powered two wheel vehicles. A tank of gas gets 200 km.  At the price of gas today the fuel economy is terrific.

Now I just need more time to explore. One of my joys is going for coffee at outdoor cafe’s. I love to carry a laptop , and journal thoughts and impressions outside.  A consummate blogger.  Now I’m looking forward to next weeekend, weather permitting, a run down to the New Westminster wharf area on my Vespa. New Westminister is one of the most marvellous and oldest areas of Vancouver but while it’s only a half hour away from where I am in Burnaby I’ve simply not enjoyed taking a car or motorcycle down the hills to the waterfront. The Vespa was made for such terraced roads and traffic. I remember riding about such places in Rome.  

Lots to look forward to.  Thankfully a friend will take care of selling my KTM which ,while being a skookum motorcycle is too off road for any of my needs to day. Older I just didn’t ,this last year like the risk of leaving the logging and forest roads or any of the  risk taking in the wilderness with an off road enduros deserves.  A decade back I’d ridden my Honda 250 on deer trails and literally off roads through pastures and fields, jumping rocks and barrelling through streams.  I didn‘t even think if I broke my body or machine,  it would be hours or days before someone found me.  This last couple of years I simply haven’t felt as  courageous or foolish alone in the woods as I did younger. Someone else will enjoy the full experience of the KTM while I scooter about, never planning on leaving a road with my new to me beautiful little friend.  Kaloo Kalay, he chortled in his joy! Thank you, Jesus!

Angels and Demons - the movie

I don’t know how I missed this movie. I’ve tears in my eyes watching it’s ending.  I love Dan Brown and have read all his books one after another as they were published. Were that there were more.  The movie with Tom Hanks directed by Ron Howard does the book justice.  How long ago did I read it.  Years now.  Yet the movie has come and I’d missed it.
Thanks to Netflix I’ve now seen it.  Situated in Vatican City the plot of intrigue and terrorism and ancient symbols, mystery and detectives is truly inspired. Having been there and seen the Sistene Chapel, the works of Rafael and Bernini I was even more moved by the beauty of the movie.  Rome is such a grand and wondrous city. The Vatican it’s crowning glory.  A city and country of it’s own I remember buying stamps when Laura and I were there, before Gilbert. some 5 years ago, I guess.  I had the opportunity to attend the International Society of Addiction Medicine in Milan so was able to add on the trip to Rome.  I’m so thankful that I did.
Seeing this movie with it’s celebration of church and science and the men and women that straddle the great divide and atonement, I feel the movie is blessed.  Tom Hanks is of course one of the truly gifted actors of our day.  The multifaceted Ewan McGregor also stars as does the beautiful intelligent Ayelet Zurer, playing so well a physicist in search of the God particle, dabbling in anti matter. I loved the performances of Stellan Skasgaard as Commander of the colourful devoted Swiss Guard and Pierfrancesco Favion as Inspector Olivetti.  Nikolaj Lie Kaas was a particularly good assassin while Armin Mueller- Stahl was simply perfect as Cardinal Strauss. But all the acting was stellar. What a set the Vatican is, each of the churches where I knelt and prayed amidst the greatest art and sculpture of the ages.
This movie is art worthy of the scene.
Thank you all for the making of this inspired creation.  Angels and Demons is truly illuminating.

Morning after the American Election

We're still here. Civil War hasn't broken out in the US. I suspect that one day there will be a disclosure of the tricky dicky maneuvers this election has. Not because it's Obama but simply because both the Democrats and Republicans approach elections like American football games without referees. Like their money management of the world. It doesn't matter how we play the game, it's whether we win or lose. It's like war and marriage in that regard. All's fair. War hasn't changed but marriage has and will continue to evolve as societies change. The best comment I saw on Facebook was "We live in Canada." After that my favourite was "We survived Bush, we can survive Obama." According to the global warming group we won't have long to go. We'll all be black as toast in a year and it won't have anything to do with politics. But then I'm old enough to reflect on a life time of catastrophising by media who according to my personal 'conspiracy' theory are definitely in bed with booze and drugs so they can sell more anti anxiety "self medication". And we will never know if the Democrats got in because more people are smoking dope in the US than ever before. They're still drinking as much but on good days they keep peace, hunt down terrorists, send missions to Mars and develop some amazing technological advances. People quickly forget that everyone is trying to leave the Communist countries and the medieval countries with tyrants would be emptied but for one thing. America doesn't let everyone in. We may criticize Obama and Bush but that's where the world's people want to go. It's the new Rome. It's London and Paris and of course the Chinese want to be Washington but what Communist Country ever could compete since their principle atheist strategy is to kill tens of millions so they don't have dissent and with loss of dissent naturally lose creativity. Russia became great stealing American technology and China is doing the same. In contrast I put my faith in the western world where Canada recently was awarded for having the greatest personal freedom. No wonder people want to come here from all over the world. It's just sad that we 'sell' off the land letting bureaucrats and politicians get kickbacks for their sales. I'm concerned about Obama. I was concerned about Bush. I think Troudeau who was as concerning as any of them, including Harper, who I personally like, said it all, when you're a mouse living beside an elephant you have to pay attention even when you sleep. It's all way above my pay grade. I'm actually rather thankful that someone else takes care of the nitty gritty of government. Most of the people I've heard being critical of government only do that, criticize. I see those who are 'volunteering' and those who are actively involved in matters of state showing a great deal more humility. I have held many leadership positions in my life and frankly it sucks. You can't please everyone and there are in the US guys on the right and the left who think assassination is acceptable. We've seen Presidents get shot. It's not the Canadian way of doing things but Americans are footballers and not hockey players. I'm thankful that the Vancouver Riotters are being fine and put in jail by the extremely fine British Columbia judiciary which respects hockey. Hockey is not soccer where fans use the game as an excuse to get drunk and beat each other up in the stands. Hockey is not American Football where they have to have cheerleaders to keep the audience attention while everyone stands around and talks most of the game. If life was a hockey game Obama and Romney would be a different story. Who knows who would be the puck and who would be the stick in that universe. Parallel universe's exist as surely as heaven and hell. Despite threat of nuclear war all my life and rank stupidity and sometimes downright psychopathic sociopathic economic and political deceit, I'm thankful for this morning and this sunny day. Congratulations America for having yet another election without shooting voters or aborting female fetuses to fix the elections years in advance. One day I trust America and the world will ask Canada to lead but not too soon. We have hockey games and miracles to attend to. Right now our health care system and welfare system and defence system are all in as much need of help as the media here. So rather than gawking south and criticizing our neighbours we probably should get down to hewing wood and drawing water. That's what the Americans will probably be doing once they get over this outrageously wasteful and expensive political "party" boon dangle.

London and Rome 2010 Video

Leaving Rome

It's 7:40.  The Shuttle arrives at 8. Laura's just doing the last packing in her bag.  I've got my shirt to put on. Last thing so I don't spill something on it right off.  I've made coffee in the room. I was woken to bells. Laura says they sound every hour.  I slept well then.  British Airways to Heathrow then 4 hour wait till the 9 hour flight  back to Vancouver, Canada.
Asked what were the highlights, I'd have to say to begin with Westminster Abbey in London.  I also liked Parliament and Big Ben.  Returning to Picadilly Circus after so many years and remembering being 20 there was a bit of nostalgia considering my grey beard in a shop window.  The Scotch House Steaks were the best meal because it was so rainy and we were so tired and hungry. Laura loved Buckingham Palace and the boat ride on the Thames.
Milan was a great conference. International Doctors in Addiction Medicine put on a good show. I really enjoyed the lectures.  Laura and I loved the gala dinner and opera concert. What would Italy be without opera.  Then there was the most amazing Cathedral and Galleria at the downtown square Duoma.  We were simply blown away by it's grandeur, beauty and size.  The shopping, even just looking at the fashions, was a joy in Milan too. All the people were so friendly and it really seemed that everyone spoke English.
Rome was spectacular. Hotel Mondial, Best Western was a joy and a safe friendly retreat from days of walking and sight seeing. St. Peter's Basilica was surely the highlight.  Then the Vatican Museums Tour was a close second. Stumbling on the Colosseum at night was a find. Then there was Spanish Stairs. Laura was so happy to sit on them after first seeing them in her guidebook. I loved that Keats had a house there.  I loved best renting a Vespa and driving out to St. John Lateran with Laura. That Minerva, Santa Maria Maggiore and St. Paul's outside the wall were the churches that most caught our breath after St. Peters. Worshipping in Rome, sitting quietly in prayer, contemplating life and death in the midst of this fast paced city was something else. So many places for solitude and reflection. Imagine three grand churches along the length of Robson Street and it might capture something of what we experienced. 
I love Roma.  The Vatican is fabulous. The food was great.  It's hard to leave.  Family, friends, Gilbert the dog, Angel and Tiffany the cats, and of course work all wait. I'm looking forward to the new world beauty of Vancouver.  I'm so ever grateful though that we could make this journey and pilgramage.  Praise be to God. Thank you Jesus.,

Vatcian Museums Tour

We learned from guides that the tour was a must.  So we did the tour.  It was fantastic.  Amazing.  Incredible. What else can be said. Not only was it a step back in history but it was also going through the homes of the Popes.  It was Michelangelo, Rafael,  and much much more.  I loved it. Laura loved it.  It was all and more than we could have hoped for. At the end we went into the basilica and gave thanks. The church this time was just that. Our first visit we'd come mostly as part of the hustle bustle tourist crowd. This time we came to worship. It was good.  Thanks be to God. 

Hotel Mondial,Best Western Hotel, Rome

The Hotel Mondial, Best Western Hotel in Republicca District of Rome is the most remarkable hotel. It's proximal to everything. It's near the main station but just far enough away to be out of the hustle and bustle that surrounds that. A block away is a main shopping district. One of the truly great basilicas, Santa Maria Maggiore is a few blocks walking distance.  It was a little farther but we've walked to the Colloseum and the Spanish Steps from this hotel. The room is everything one could wish for in modern elegant hotel rooms.  Lots of plugs for computers.  A washroom with both bath and bidet and even a rack for drying washed delicates.  Lots of closet room. Really large comfortable room. Internet connection at a cost.  The whole was about 150 euro a day.  This is cheap by Rome standards unless you get further out or drop considerably in safety and refinement. I left my computer and Ipad with the desk daily, used the in room safe, but left cameras and other valuables out in the room without anything going missing. The staff spoke English and Italian. They were amazing with all kinds of information about what was available.  I asked for help with travel, shopping and locations and all their recommendations were the best. They even pointed me to the Vespa rental service and we had a great day surviving traffic on a motorcycle. The Vatican was 4 subway stops, Ottavia, up from the Republicca stop at the Metro station 2 blocks short walk. Tickets for the metro were available from the newspaper salesman at the top of the stairs to the metro.  1 Euro.  Having a metro so close was such a convenience though we travelled by traffic alot and just used Basilica Maggiore as a reference for the cabbies.  We were actually next to the Opera Theatre. There was an amazing ice cream shop 2 doors down and the restaurant next door served both fabulous pasta and great roasts.  Everywhere in Rome the coffee was the best.  Hotel Mondial made our pilgrimage and trip to Rome and the Vatican a thorough joy. The cleaning staff did a daily great job.  Bellhops were quick and ready to help with luggage.  We felt pampered.  We didn't use the satellite tv but it was there.  I liked the air conditioning and in room coffee.  It was like home or what I'd like in a home away from home.  Just 'perfecto'!

Da Vinci Code and Christian Flesh

Being in Rome visitting churches I am struck not only by the veneration of the dead but by the persistence of flesh.  In one church there is a body of a saint and in another the head.  The early popes traded in these bits of dead martyrs.  And Dan Brown in Da Vinci Code made a world best selling book that became a movie starring Tom Hanks.  Without fear of being a spoiler this late in the game, the great 'secret' in the book is that Jesus and Mary had a child. The DNA of Jesus was somehow holy. 
In the Bible Jesus is the son of God.  God became flesh.  Mary became pregnant without intercourse, divinely impregnated through God. She is not raped by a Roman Centurion and does not have a love child of Joseph.  Her hymen is intact apparently at birth and there is even controversy over whether she has any more sons, such as Jesus' brother, James.  Women, especially single and often bitter women, would have her never touched by man and Joseph and kindly brotherly sort that marries her but never expects her to do the dirty especially after God has been there before him.  There was even much talk through the centuries of Mary miraculously getting her hymen back.  Frankly I don't know.
There's this other part call the 'Transfiguration'.  The bottom line is that God became 'flesh'.  Jesus was 100% man and 100% God.  He wasn't a half and half which was common in the Greek and Roman religions already, man goats and such.  How this works is beyond our human mind to comprehend.  The matter of faith is that it's a 'leap'.  It's an acceptance of the 'impossible' in a limitted set of matters.  The sacred can be all about us and still ruled by scientific laws which are a different way of saying spiritual laws but there are those miraculous matters which are still outside this world as we understand it. 
The progress of man scientifically is to make him essentially 'god like' in a very human way.  He gains powers upon powers and unwraps the mysteries of the universe for the sake of doing good or evil. 
The dichotomy between mind and matter is not a spiritual dichotomy.  All of creation is God, 100% God and yet our human understanding is materialistic and experiences life as 100% human. 
The question arose for me as I contemplated the tomb of St. Paul, all that is earthly decomposes with time. Even the mummies so well preserved would in enough time disappear or return to base elements.  Considering there were wars only a half century ago and there is little evidence today in these old world countries I'm struck by the work the archeologists must do to find something a couple of thousand years ago. Supposing we're a hundred thousand years in the future. Is St. Paul, now decomposed sufficiently to make his grave merely a 'site', ie he's returned wholly to dust, is this still to be venerated and holy.
Well, the matter of time is a thing that St. Augustine wrote about and Scientific American essential agreed with.  Spiritually there is only truly 'now'. Yesterday is memory and tomorrow is a dream. Collective agreement on the past and present and future is what the group mind does.  One step a head of the crowd you're a genius, two steps a head of the crowd you're a martyr.  Our perspective on reality is maintained according to what the group can stand and those who deviate from this are a threat and defined as either insane or antisocial. 
The Nazi position was to create a superhuman through genetic modification by removing the mentally ill, the Slavs, Ukranians, Poles, Jews, and homosexuals from the gene pool. This idea of genetic manipulation was an American invention.  There is no such thing in the Catholic world.  Transformation of the human to the divine is what is wanted in the spiritual realm. 
Biologically the human brain is that which is not animal so the prefrontal cortex is for developping beyond the limits of fish and fowl and mammal.  The Nazis were all for making betters wolves and predators per se. Hitler had a theology of somewhat neo pagan ideology but definitely not Wicca per se, or any of the new age religions. His was a war god man thing.  Nietze spoke to this idea.  But fundamentally Man as God in contrast to the Christian Catholic idea of God as Man.
Inherrent in Christianity is the idea that our true nature, which is Christ like seeks to evolve.  It's not predatorial like a great animal but forgiving and forfeiting of this life. It's unselfish and altruistic.
Jesus died for our sins. If I were to become 'god like' in the Christian sense I would 'sacrifice' my life for my brothers and sisters.  In Christianity this world is a dream and the world after death is the real world.
That's what makes these graves a bit difficult.  The Bible says that we will in Heaven have our bodies.  I didn't think they'd be the one I'm in now.  Already I've thought that if I'd known I was going to have to live in it this long I'd not have played sports so hard or done so much work as a youth because now I ache everyday from old injuries and from the labour I've done with my body.  Imagine if the awakening in Christian terms comes and all who are dead rise up and have their own body. St. Paul and St. Peter would have to go find their heads in St. John Lateran church where they're kept in silver urns.  It sounds like a horrible state of affairs.  I'm all wrinkled and aching and supposed to be dancing and playing harps and happy with Christianity.  If the Second Coming takes too long I could decompose and maybe have my right side go faster than my left. The Heaven Christians long for would be goulish and zombie like. No wonder those movies sell so well and frankly I'd like to be one of guys with the 12 guage shot gun, thank you very much.  I don't want decomposing Christians hugging me.
That's because I'm thinking in 'solid' terms. I'm thinking in the limitations of my unscientific mind. Most of what I am is 'space'. The distance between electrons and neutrons is football fields and such longer than I can imagine. So even if we erroneously think of these light particles as particles there far more space between them.  They're in constant motion. My body is more an "idea" than I'd care to think about.  I am indeed God's idea.  God is the prime move, the first in creation and I am a creature of his creation.  I am in God's mind and made of God's mind stuff.  At the level of physics it's all miraculous.  Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Srogen Box all tell us very clearly that we are thinking creation and together our thought is affecting creation and that our thoughts ultimate originate from God.
But what of free will. The infinite choices in the universe are infinitely God.  I can make an individual choice and that individual choice will have a multidudinous cacaphony of possibilities flowing out from it. The one thing Science has taught us is that the possibilities of the human brain and DNA are virtually infinite. The synapses are all multiply connected and there's 50 plus neurotransmitters working in a soup of activity making each brain a world in itself, a regular city of activity. No wonder we can dream and Hamlet can say 'to dream or not to dream, that is the question.'
The imagination of the child is what adulthood discourages so that we can fit in the bigger imagination of the rulers and their ideas about what should be.  It's called being an adult and worker.  If you want to imagine get a job in Hollywood but don't do it in the post office.  Einstein didn't keep his job there for long. 
But is there any real good in keep dead people around other than for tourist dollar generation. The actual churches have cemeteries inside and outside. 
At the level of feeling I'm moved at the urn of my mother's ashes.  Being a baptist she was probably concerned about the catholics offing her head after she was dead.  Best get burn so that the worst that can happen is that your ashes get flung to all the parts of the earth.  Today with the Russians building a hotel in space maybe taking some of the ashes up there would piss her off.  She was worldly in a cozy homey way and after death thinking her sons had split her ashes and one had gone into outerspace would have her rolling in an gravity free grave. The feeling of being beside the grave of Pope John Paul was moving. I think the feeling is veneration. I wouldn't have it beside Michael Jackson's grave but know musicians who would.
There is great denial of death in the world.  The church reminds us of the limits of this life.  We grow old and die.  People have children to perpetuate themselves.  They reproduce. The Queen's family have been passing wealth and power along to their children for generations.  The Tower of London where many a gruelling act occured testified to the fact of legacy and the efforts the world rulers went to keept it all in the family.  The church might off a saints head after death but the world rulers are happy enough to off competitors heads before they're even dead.  Indeed they will torture them as well and think up all manner of inhuman, cat like games to play with their dying. Even Socrates was allowed to take poison. 
So if this body I'm in is a dream of atoms in an idea of a force field grid in a sacred hologram and when I die the 'program' maintains a trace of my having been, it remains whether I'm in the game or not.  The Christian idea and part of the reason for the veneration of saints and popes is that indeed the soul remains connected to the body till the day of reckoning when Christians rise up together in 'new bodies'.  Thank god for the 'new body'.  I expect mine will have genitals too. I'm rather fond of genitals so I'll get those.  I'm not sure if I'll have a mouth and anus because while I like eating the whole searching for toilets for defecation and pissing as a tourist seems less efficient and divine than plant life. I'd like to take my energy direct from the sun and forego sitting on less than sanitary toilets in foreign countries. 
That said, I'd welcome a new body. 
Tom Hanks in Da Vinci Code finds the divine sequence in a DNA and that Divine sequence gets passed on through generations.  The actual DNA gene studies suggest that we all have all the DNA but that certain areas are blocked and others are highlighted.  It's more complicated than we once thought. We once thought that if we were missing a bit then we'd not have an eye per se but it turns out that the DNA like the Synapses are multi referenced and repeat so that really the 'code' is all there but it's not read for whatever reason.  Indeed the whole human genome is in a bit of buccal smear.  We are a hologram in that sense. 
So Dan Brown appeals to the zombie in us with his idea of a holy couple producing holy children.  It's poor science in a sense and poor religion but great art. Dan Brown is one of my favourite authors and I'm looking forward to another book since his one on the Freemasons of Washington.  I really can't imagine what it will be but then that's the genius of Dan Brown. All his books are brilliant and highly intriguing.
The veneration of the dead is a different thing to the Chinese.  They don't halve 'salvation' as an endpoint. The pagan might venerate the parents because they're happy with the good genes that allow the couple today to make good babies and lots of money.  The buddhist though venerates Buddha for the teaching or for what.
Intellectuals find it easier to pride themselves on their veneration of 'books' and ideas whereas some people experience life not in a limitted mental state but 'whollistically' and to them being in the presence of an 'urn' of a saint might be more moving than reading his words saying 'love'. 
I find all the dead bodies a 'stumbling point' for my religious faith but then I think about it and it's no different really than the great Orthodox - Catholic Debate about Mosaic and Painting. The Orthodox said that you couldn't make likenesses and that this was sacriledge.  Something about 'capturing' or 'stealing some soul'.  This group wouldn't be wholy anti Facebook and would be running about St. Peter's square smashing cameras right and left.  The Roman Catholic group didn't have a problem with "images".  I remember being taught as a protestant that the Catholics were an 'idolatrous' group because they had all these statues and pictures of saints and they worshipped the pictures.  Picture learning is a right brain activity where as reading biblical words and ideas is a left brain learning.  The left brain denounced the right brain and we all move through the human idea, the anthropomorphizing to the God light beyond.  The TRINITY is beyond human understanding. If it was small enough to be understood, the saying goes, it would not be big enough to do the job. God is that big. God does it all. Omniscient. Omnipotent. Omnipresent. 
I'm here in Rome on Pilgrimage.  The catholics are as odd as the Da Vinci Code is odd in another direction. 
Anxiety is a measure of my distance from God and a measure of my humanity. I pray everywhere for courage.  I'm quaking in fear before God.  I have that gene complex that is so very animalistic and it is fear of the unknown. And yet God is both known and unknown.  I bow and shield my eyes and cover my genitals and close my ears and wrestle with what I still hear and see and ultimately what I say.  I am in awe of God but I am equally attached to this world. I wake each morning back in an older body with less capacity more pain and even more sadness somedays. 
It is raining today. 

Visitting Churches in Rome on a Vespa Motorcycle

We slept in this Sunday morning.  We'd planned to go to St.Peters to see the Pope wave from his apartment at noon. We weren't sure where his apartment was or if he was going to wave at all.  Any uncertainty in early morning ventures is sufficient excuse for rolling over and going back to sleep.
I did carry on with the day's plan when I finally got up at 8:30 am.  That was to go out and rent a Vespa Scooter for the day.  This I did from Bici Baci Scooter and Bicycle Rental, Via Del Viminale, 5 Tel.06/48.28.443.  The guys there were terrific. The machine was the best. 250 cc.  Given the hills of Rome anything under a hundred with two people wouldn't do well.  250 was just right.  I returned to the room and Laura was still in the bath.
So off I went again for a spin around the neighbourhood.No one dresses differently for scootering. The girls are all on motorbikes wearing high heels or sandals while the guys wear short sleeve shirts.  All that seems to be required is a helmut. I had on my jeans and sneekers, Tilly sports jacket and picked up a scarf to keep my neck warm and leather dress gloves for hand protection.   
The police stopped me when I scooted across a courtyard to take some pictures.  I'd vaguely noted a lot of uniforms and guys with guns but another car had driven on the courtyard before me.  The police said I couldn't drive on that courtyard. I mentioned the other car.  "That was a federal minister," he answered. I said I was sorry.  He kindly asked me to move along. 
When I returned Laura was getting dressed. It was 11:30 then by the time we were on the road.  I later learned that the courtyard I'd driven across was the President of Italy's home. 
There 's a movie , Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck on a Vespa,  I think Audrey Hepburn was on the back.  Anyway I played a good Gregory Peck dashing about gleefully on the scooter, keeping us alive in the chaos and high speed circular traffic of Rome, 50 years after the movie was made. I think there was a little more traffic.. The only problem was that Laura was screaming in terror at the Roman drivers while grunting when the cobble stone fell away into manholes. Some of the romance was missing.  She didn't appreciate when I told her to suck it up as romantically as I could.   I told her we were only going to churches that day so she should pray but I really think she was pill seeking for benzodiazepines.  There was one moment when I had to evade another car and almost lost her sideways before she'd found out where the foot pegs were.. 

St. John Lateran surprised and disturbed her as well.   She was really impressed that the guide book said, "The Sacrosanct and Patriarchal Lateran Archbasilica is the Roman Pontifical Cathedral, and also a mother church, but above all it was the first building of public worship erected in Rome and in the entire Christian world: a model for all that followed." If it had stopped there Laura would have been happy.  However we learned that the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul were kept above the tomb of Martin V in silver urns.Laura couldn't get it out of her head how they got there. "We're Catholic. We're supposed to keep our bodies in tact for the resurrection. What's going to happen to St. Paul and St. Peter when they come back and have to go looking for their heads," she said.  St. Francis came to this church to visit the Pope and get support for his new Order too. 

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was closed when Laura needed it.  She perked up though when we had spagetti across the street in a little cafe. I had the catelloni and enjoyed the sunshine and blue sky.  The church opened and we went back in and prayed in the basement shrine, just the two of us alone, for a few moments, before the two busloads of tourists joined us in the small space.  Upstairs there was a room with bits of the crucifix in gold containers behind glass. An early pope had actually sent slivers of this to a Visigoth King.  Another room was devoted to Antonietta Meo's remains, "Nennolina" the church's youngest venerated mystic who died at age 6, 1937. We liked this church.
I got lost driving on the equivalent of a freeway that ran along the river. There were cars coming in every direction and then the scooters would buzz past if you didn't  keep going at high speed.  I got proficient at zipping in and out of the cars to get to the front of the line too.    It was all a bit disconcerting but dooable.  I'd not try it on the Harley Electroglyde with all the people darting across the road at any given moment but the Vespa seemed built for this urban work.
My mistake took us to Tiber Island where I'd wanted to go anyway. We walked across a bridge to get to St. Bartholomew's which was built on the Temple to Asclepius. 
After that we headed on to St. Paolo fuori le Mura, Via Ostiense 190. I didn't have a map outside the centre of the city but with a compass I veered across the city till I hit Via Ostiense.  Laura found this all particularly challenging.  I later found that one guidebook  said "Roman traffic makes scootering dangerous, although bikes are a great way to get around the city."  It was a good thing that Laura hadn't see this. Thinking grissly thoughts of beheaded saints her faith was a little stretched.
I personally had been thinking of St. Peter all day. He was an apostle I could certainly relate to. Jesus walks on water and invites him to. He does then thinks about what he's doing and begins to sink.  Later he's promising Jesus he'll always be true but before the cock crows morning he's denied Jesus three times to save his hide. I figure with saints like Peter there's hope for the rest of us. 
St. Paul's a different sort.  He's Jesus PR man and works tirelessly to promote the brand.  I absolutely love some of his writing and teaching while on other passages I think his rabbinical intellect gets in the way of true inspiration.  That said it would be easier if I could just accept St. Paul.  I was praying these sorts of thoughts at his graveside in the centre of the magnificent basilica for him. I thought it best that I didn't get caught up in the details like maybe he didn't have a head because it was at the last church we'd visitted. That would be a real stumbling block for the sort of man I think St. Paul was.
Laura and I first arrived during a service and sat in.  Padre Nostre, means our father.  Ave Mary and a few other words were recognisable.  The rest would have been Greek but it was Latin to me. There was chanting and hymns and kneeling and praying.  I liked that.  Great organ music.   A comforting service. The priest ate the bread though. In this service he didn't share.  At a later service he might have.  The service we were at seemed more an appertif.  The following service looked like the full meal.  Alot more people had come into it just as we were leaving.  We prayed at the tomb and picked up an official indulgence for viisitting this church.
Night was coming on and Laura was happy to hear me suggest that I get the scooter back.  Despite the indulgence I was finding the lights and dusk particularly challenging.  Turning the machine in and walking away alive was exhilerating. We'd been to three churches and attended one service. Not bad for a Sunday in Rome.
When I got into the hotel I asked if the Pope had left any messages for me. That made the night attendant laugh. I told him, "I told God I was coming to Rome. I just wondered if he'd told the Pope."

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

St. Bartholemew's on Tiber Island

San Paolo fuori le Mura