Meet Martin Luther

I do have more to tell – or show, really – from Dresden and the rest of my trip. I just sort of have to figure out how to pare down all the photos. And figure out what to say. The truth is that I have some gorgeous photos from Dresden – and nothing to say about the city. It – didn’t move me. But Dresden matters, even in my story. Here’s one reason:

You see, you can’t go through Norwegian school or Norwegian life without thinking about Martin Luther at some point. His protest, nailed to a door in Wittenberg, started the reformation and forever changed Norway’s Catholic churches to Protestant ones. The official state religion of Norway is Lutheran Evangelical. As a child in a Norwegian school, I had to take a religion history class (called Christianity class) which introduced us to his catechisms, the big and the little. I got good grades in that class, simply because I was able to pay attention and learn (most of the other kids hated that class). It never converted me, though – not that it was intended to. I question everything and prefer the sort of religion that tells you to just go live already because God is busy doing same. Can’t say that’s the message I ever got from the Lutherans, though I don’t mind their work ethic.

So I just had to take the photo of Martin Luther’s statue in Dresden. I also took a photo from behind. The meticulous recreation of the folds in his cape fascinate me.