Faith and...

Last week my brother, mother and I went to the Italian market in Philadelphia with the sole intention of finding Limonce Panettone. We walked for hours in our hunt to discover where this hidden treasure was buried. And alas, good St. Anthony led us to it as it was found at his very own Italian cafe at the end of the ally. FYI, the market is found between Christian and 9th should anyone be interested in going. This place was so Italian I felt that I was really in Italy. Being that I returned from the ancient city of Roma just last month, I knew what it was to be at an authentic Italian market and let me tell you, it wasn't too far from home. The culture of this area was something I've never felt before in this country. It made me feel like I belonged there. It was like being home in a way. My "people" were there. When I think about it, this sense, this feeling is what I believe most people of my generation regretfully have never felt. We all want to know our heritage, our ancestors, where we came from, and yet we in America are not encouraged to keep our European traditions alive. We've lost so much of who and what we came from. We are all American. But what in the heck does that mean? No one can really answer that and I think it's because we have a basis on nothing substantially solid. We have nothing to unite us aside from a false "liberty" that gives us warm fuzzies yet never manifests when it comes to havingn to pay exorbitant property taxes and health insurance bills. But I digress...
Oh, how I wish we returned to the old ways of our ethnic cultures. I miss my Italian heritage. I miss hearing the accordion, seeing women work at preparing for home-made pasta while wearing those precious knee-length dresses with their tattered hair pinned up into a bun. On a side note, these were real women I can assure you. They knew what it was to work and to work hard. To all those feminists who say that women we like dolls in a "doll house" take a look at the lives of these women, take a good look at what these valiant women endured on a daily basis-it will put you to shame. Oh those women make me crazy. They do nothing but complain about things they know nothing about. But I digress again. I miss the vegetable gardens with the five foot high tomato vines and the summer canning parties full of sweat, tears and cut thumbs. But how can I get it back? Why did we lose these happy memories?
In my days of meandering about this orb of existence, I see people my age and younger walking around with nothing to give themselves to, nothing to define themselves as. They want to belong, but to what? They want to support something, but what? And with this question comes an answer that will not surprise anyone with common sense. I think that if we had ever kept our cultural roots, that the rise in child violence, drug abuse and suicide would not be so high. Why do children resort to these habits and behaviors? Because they are starving for something which they are not getting and which they do not know. They want to be part of a family, of a community. They want both a spiritual and a physical family to love and to fight for. Faith in the end is what they seek though they would die before they ever admitted this. But observe that those cultures that had a great sense of cultural identity usually had a strong faith. This importance of having a culture worked hand in hand with a person's religious beliefs. Most every western culture had traditions revolving around their faith. The faith was what made many of their traditions; it was what made culture come to life in a sense. Perhaps this desire for a world of faith is the answer to retrieving this world of culture. I believe that as truth and beauty come part and parcel, so too do faith and culture. So may we find our faith and through it our heritage and may be bring back the beauty of our ancient people's so that their faith in God and their love of culture be not in vain.

Should anyone be interested in finding an excellent Italian bakery check out Isgros. We stumbled upon this bakery in our journey through the city and how happy I am we did. They make some of the country's best cannolis and pinniolis. I highly recommend you try them. Buon Appetito. Ciao