My BoJon Heritage: Hold On To Your History

Basilica Marija Pomogaj , the patron of Slovenia and also St. Mary's Church in Pueblo, CO. I learned this from Ursula Perko who is currently visiting Slovenia So I found this google image and decided to write about our culture. Ursula and her family arrived there just in time for Benediction and Rosary. She said it was a very beautiful experience.

Here is a google image of the altar inside this church. This made me think how important cultural studies are and why we need to stand up and tell your children that they need to to understand the importance of of learning their culture through studies. I don't want to get political here but there are very few ethnic studies that are offered in colleges today. People need to reach out to their own culture and study it and work hard to get these studies into the educational system. I do not mean to be rude here but when two of our children graduated from college in 2012 and 2013 they attended their graduation ceremony. People with degrees in the only two cultural studies were 1 out of 10 in attendance for African American Cultural studies and Chicano Studies. I think that is really sad. Why would you choose a field and not show up to celebrate your accomplishment?

International Business School at Lubljana. It seems that education is an important part of our culture.

Piran, Slovenia, it looks like a lovely coastal town with a beautiful view of the Adriatic Sea. This is a major tourist attraction. The town has medieval attraction with narrow streets and compact houses. Talk about tiny house nation! I laugh when I see the HGTV commercials for this show. Goodness, people everywhere else have been living economically for ages.

This is a beautiful portrait of Mary Help of Christians and the Infant Jesus. I loved studying the lives of saints when I was a kid in Catholic school. There was a lot to learn back than and I found great joy reading the stories of these heroes.

I have been following Ursula's various posts at Face Book regarding their trip to Slovenia. It is fun to see the small towns that host music festivals and offer free drinks and pastries. I think the sLOVenian culture is quite interesting and there are many people who have made our heritage proud. I would personally like to visit this country and see the roots of our ancestors. They struggled and suffered many hardships so they could offer all of us a better life. I think walking on the soil they grew up on would be a thrilling feeling. Because of the Communist regime our ancestors grew up with they witnessed many tragedies in their lives and lost loved ones. Through the years when I talk with someone who has visited the birthplace of our ancestors they tell me the country is remarkably beautiful and offers a variety of wonderful cultural events including music and food. The country is known for many liquid refreshments. There is a lot of art and history to visit throughout the country and when I wrote my post about Rye, Colorado and the Perseren Home I knew I had seen that name in Solvenia as I was reading about this country.

Francis Perseren was a 19th century Slovene romantic poet who was born December 2 or 3 1800 (December 3 is my own birthday)! He passed away 6 February 1849. He is best known as the poet who has inspired virtually all later Slovene literature and is the greatest known Slovene classic author. His work has been translated into at least a dozen languages and his poetry is laced with torment of love lost. All of his closest friends died tragically and he also attempted to take his own life. During his lifetime he lived in conflict with both the civil and religious establishment. His lyrical poetry dealt with his love of his homeland  as well as the suffering humanity and his unfulfilled love toward his muse Julija Primic. Regarding education Perseren had obtained a law degree and did practice law. He never lost his love for Julija and confessed this on his death bed but he had three children with Anna Jelovesek , whom he never married. His life was quite unhappy but his work is still well known today,

I am winding down to my last two posts this one and tomorrow's for my 31 days of July. I am hoping  Mike will pick up where he left off and post on his blog .This is a wonderful journey I have begin and it is far from over. We are heading to Kansas this weekend to put Nick's things for college in storage. The school changed their move in days and we are going to be on vacation next week. So on Monday the 10th of August we will be sending Nick back to the Kansas Wesleyan University and his next year there. It has been a wonderful time and it is always hard to let go of Nick. He is a blessing and a joy and a great help to me. We get to have lunch together each day and he has helped me with the task of caring for all the pets during the day. When I return from vacation I am praying there will be a job offer or two waiting for me. Cousin Kay said her mom, Aunt Steffie always lite a candle and prayed by her statue of the Infant of Prague.

She said if someone needed a job her mom did this and that person always found work. I know Catholics love their saints and I thought this was sweet. Kay said she will be praying when she gets back from Slovenia for me.

I hope you have learned a little something and enjoyed some of these posts. I have enjoyed it very much and I am hopeful I will be able to put this month of July into book form to have for future reference. Remember to not let go of your heritage. It is as important to you as anyone else in your life. and we should not let our culture disappear. We need to keep it alive. Until tomorrow...