Beyond Bringing Up Boys

Zac and I have heard this phrase so many times this week that it has become a running joke.  Whenever one of us messes up, the other one says,  "Mind the gap." We hear the expression at least 100 times a day while riding the tube. Sometimes the train station platform is not completely level with the train itself, leaving a high step, or a gap of several inches. For those of you following along in "American," the warning means to watch your step. We have found that the phrase applies nicely to all sorts of situations with which we are intimately familiar: spilling drinks, dropping coins (which happens a lot because I have to stare intently at every coin to determine its value), to actually making a misstep. Yesterday while staring intently at a landmark, I failed to "mind the gap," stepping off a curb and nearly falling.   But that was yesterday. Today we began at Tower Hill, looking out at the infamous Tower of London.  The sky was uncooper...

On this trip, Zac and I have adopted the "inductive tourism" strategy. We begin with the big picture, and then learn several smaller details along the way. General to specific. Today's big picture was the British Museum of history. After about five minutes we realized that there was not a chance in the eternal history of time that we were going to be able to see a very large percentage of this museum today. We narrowed the parameters significantly and spent over two hours visiting exhibits from 1000 BC to 1000 AD -- of European history alone. To put that experience into perspective, we visited three or four rooms on one floor. There are at least six levels in this museum. In my opinion, history can be really tedious if I cannot find someway to humanize it. Today I looked for the humanity of the displays. Take, for instance, this piece of lead.  Unseen is a curse written during the time of Roman occupation of England; What an insight into huma...