August 26, 2006

World Equestrian Games Journals from Aachen
Mack's Musings
By Father Mack (a.k.a.: Father Larry David McCormick)

“The Usefulness of a Clean Hankie” Page Two
Special to Dressage Daily #15

As Ruth and I pack our belongings and brace ourselves for too-little sleep between the end of the Freestyle and our scheduled takeoff from Cologne’s airport (can you believe that the Kur is supposed to end at 11:45 at night?!? It will have to be 12:30 or one o’clock in the morning by the time the medals ceremony is completed), I anticipate the closing ceremonies of these games.

There will be, of course, the ceremonial lowering of the FEI flag and its passage into the hands of representatives from the Kentucky Horse Park where the 2010 iteration of the World Equestrian Games will be held. Unlike any of the preceding incarnations of the WEG, however, these games will reach their terminus with a variation upon an Aachen tradition.

Those of us who have attended any CHIO Aachen know the closing day ritual of the riders on their horses loping around the stadium as the onlookers wave farewell with their handkerchiefs. Like my colleagues in the Theology department without their penknives, folks attending the final day without a hankie (clean ones make a much better impression, I trust you will agree) will feel themselves naked.

This nudity will be compounded by the fact that the mayor of Aachen has expanded the typical Aachen farewell by moving it from the stadium and the show grounds (the Soers) into the streets of the city’s Zentrum (its “high street,” its downtown area). Those riders who are still in town (mostly the show jumpers and the reining contestants, I suspect) will dash down the streets of Aachen as its populace pull their nose clothes from every pocket to bid the athletes a hearty farewell.

Debbie, Steffen, Guenter, Leslie, Isabell, Anky, Andreas, and all the rest of the sportspeople who have made our week in Aquis-Granum the delight it has been will not see us as we tender them our goodbye. From the window of our airplane we will wave our handkerchiefs* and offer heartfelt thanks for the sport we have been privileged to view. It has been an honor to share some thoughts and photos about these games with you, dear reader.

All Our Best,

Ruth & Father Mack+

* The photo of Ruth is taken in front of a statue that confounds those of us who did not grow up in Aachen. The three children are saluting one another and passersby by lifting the pinkie finger of one hand and wiggling it at those they greet. This uniquely Aachen form of greeting is derived from the fact that in the industrial age the children of Aachen were employed by the local needle manufacturers to sort the needles so as to weed out the good from the bad. The children soon learned that the best digit for such sorting was the pinkie. Thus, when one Aachener sees another he or she will raise the most minor finger and wiggle it in recognition of their fellow citizen.

While you and I may not be natives of Aachen, it would be a sight to behold were a stadium full of us to greet Nadine Capellmann (the lone native Aachener participating in these games) at some future competition with pinkie fingers aloft. What would the other fans think?