Vienna 2026

I am fortunate enough to have a son who has his own family now as well in Vienna and so have a good excuse to visit often and stay awhile. And so I have over the past fifteen years. I  enjoy it in all of its seasons, the Christmas lights and festive markets and ice skating in the winter, Opera season, Spring breaking in its full glory, summers swimming in the Danube, and the crisp Fall, though that has so far, been my least visited season. I arrived in Spring this year, just as it was hitting full bloom, fresh from a crazy three-day water gun battle in the streets of Bangkok celebrating their new year. It was on the heels of a longer journey, eight months, through India and Southeast Asia, and due to the bombing in Iraq, via Addis Ababa. 

I saw Vienna through new eyes, appreciating even more deeply its architectural beauty, its cleanliness, order, refinement, relative quietude, egalitarianism. I point out the latter specifically as it was of course the subject when I was interviewed by a radio station on May 1, Austria's Labor Day while enjoying a beer in the Prater, the historic amusement park, a central locale for picnicking and reveling that day. And that made me reflect... what are the differences you see between Austria and the US? Eeeee. Between full-out capitalism and social democracy? Should I begin with competition trumping caring, compassion and cooperation? While some are too timid for the microphone, and some unwilling to give their opinions freely, I welcome the opportunity. I have a bit of a love affair with radio, having once worked as a volunteer dj on a big band swing show in El Paso, co-hosting weekly with a far more knowledgable mentor and manning the dark womb-like booth with its blinking lights alone for jazz shows on other evenings. I actually feel honored to be asked to contribute my opinions to contemporary dialogue. Still, this trip was less about fathoming the political waters as it has been for me in the past, strolling the corridors of the Donau Canal, reading the commentary implicit and explicit in the street art there. I didn't have to measure political sentiment: I'd been pretty much told to my face by foreigners over the previous several months how appalled they were with the US, how we had fallen in their esteem and the continuation, in fact the escalation of our imperialistic actions were not courting favor with anyone of any intelligence. Bad enough unilaterally abducting the head of the Venezuelan government in the middle of the night, but on top of that jeopardizing the safety of the entire planet by starting a war with a country ruled by religious fanatics who hate, and I don't use the term loosely, the entire modern world, and resulting in the closure of a major shipping channel much of the world relies upon for its fuel, but also actively supporting a crazed government hellbent on killing every last Palestinian on earth, not caring a whit for the immense heartbreaking collateral damage. This is not a political forum. I'm 69 and not a rainmaker. I know that nothing I say is going to move the needle toward peace and spiritual evolution. I'm merely recording what I see and part of that is that even the street artists have nothing, no sentiments to record at this time. Wars just keep on keeping on. Resistance to the warped and hateful authoritarian measures like the activities of ICE is only met with increased violence. What's the use? I do still believe in democratic representation, there being no benevolent dictators on the horizon, and I vote, but I don't believe it's working. Unchecked capitalism, gerrymandering, corruption of the courts and legislators have all made it pretty meaningless, not to mention the lack of reaction to the treasonous effort to undermine the entire electoral process that fateful and forgotten January 6th. It is painful to believe that the present administration reflects the outlook and goals of the American people. But I write this as a spectator only, one who has become increasingly unpopular globally due to my citizenship, and keeping my head low.

I've always particularly enjoyed Sundays here. Most stores are closed. In many areas of town there is little traffic and it is silent. Pealing church bells toll the hours. And they are more generous on Sundays, stretching out time as long as it can without alerting anyone who might suppress their clandestine sympathy. It's even slower in those parts of town with cobblestone courtyards, where the bells echo against the stone mansions where people live in lovely apartments. For everyone, a small palace, thank you. This trip, against the contrast of India and Southeast Asia, the ubiquitous garbage, the ear-splitting cacophony of traffic, drivers must honk to signal their presence as their are no lanes, few traffic lights, and "no rules, just suggestions,"  and against the backdrop of an extraordinary surplus of grimy barefoot stooped over toothless people shuffling along dirty streets, it is against this demographic and environmental contrast that my clean well-dressed comrades here in Vienna stand quietly, ever so quietly and patiently, ever so patiently for the Vienna Ampelmann to change and allow us to cross a traffic intersection... and this time, I don't mind the time wasted even when it is painfully clear no traffic is approaching from anywhere. I am in fact relieved to follow rules for the simple sake of order, and for what predictability does to calm the nervous system, for the opportunity to simply stand there and gaze up at the billowy white clouds floating through a clear blue sky, rather than crouching forward anxiously with-darting-eyes, planning my race through the traffic. Oh, how the lugubrious yellow skies had weighed upon me. How the smells of diesel, garbage, manure, and the incessant burning of toxic garbage along the streets had made my head heavy and ache. 

I don't want to lose the magic that I have gained, which is much, and so I must devise my own shrines in this civilization if I am not to lose the deep respect for Creation that spirituality engenders.