Crossroads, Indeed

 Strasbourg, France, is know as "The Crossroads of Europe," currently for its political influence but for centuries because of its geographical location at the heart of western and northern Europe. (See it straight up from the top of Italy?) It is true that we could drive almost anywhere in that historically powerful area in 5-8 hours, and we heard recently that our Rhine Valley has the highest concentration of castles and fortresses in all of Europe. The knights came through from Britain to the Crusades, the Danes came down, the Romans came over, the Ottomans conquered occasionally...plenty of reason for castles on those bluffs and caravans through the valleys, built by people from Turkey to Mongolia to Norway to Spain.

Certainly its 10,000 international students would support the crossroads identity. I actually met and became friends with a woman there who had grown up in the same town I did, in southern California! And we met in Strasbourg, France.

The Balkans were considered a throughway as well, a gate from Asia to Europe. And, guess what! Indiana apparently, is also..."The Crossroads of America." Indianapolis is on a route between Chicago and Florida, and major east-west interstates also cross through the state. So, voilà, a crossroads.

 Weirdly, I also have met a man here in Indiana, in our city, at our church, who not only grew up in that southern California town - but went to the very same high school I did, 10 years behind me.

I'm not sure any one place can claim to be The Crossroads to everywhere, but the world is certainly smaller and more fluid than I imagined it when I was a senior in high school.

Oh, the places you'll go, and the people you'll meet, and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street (which our new town has, right between Walnut and Jefferson, crossing Main!).