Sunday, May 06, 2007

Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Ever have one of those moments when you are totally overwhelmed in making a decision because you have too many options and wonderful choices? If I used a platitude for this it would be "I feel like a kid in a candy shop that offers every confection known to man."

Well, this past April I set out to the task of putting no less than fifteen "romantic" castles on my Castle Lady spaces blog and wound up covering about five, total. They were not well known castles such as Neuschwanstein, Windsor, Belvoir, Warwick, Edinburgh, Lichtenstein, Versailles, Chambord, Dublin, or Blarney.

The truth is I just had a difficult time deciding on the fifteen castles in question because the number of castles is staggering and then... I just ran out of time. I reimmersed myself in the research I did for five years and suddenly realized two weeks had run past my nose while trying to make the decision.

I've fallen in love all over again with all of the castles, some of which you have probably never heard of, but because of their unique place or features should be right up there with the "well-known" castles.

It made me realize how important these books will be, and not just on an esthetic level. On a deeper level these magnificent monuments to the past are revelatory exercises in the treasure trove history offers us. They are the menhirs of our ancestors struggles- together and apart. Most of all, they speak to us of ourselves. Man does not shed his past, genetics or lineage without great struggles and even then he may not. Indeed, I believe in the closing of his life, he must embrace and face all three and with bravery.

Therefore, I have decided on two principles in the making of the "Castle Lover's Guides TM" The first is that "famous" is not the all-consuming passion that will drive me forward into production and the second is that there is no such thing as an insignificant castle, story or historical person. For the time being, I'll keep the word insignificant out of my vocabulary.


The Castle Lady sends warm kisses and hugs! Mwaah!



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