| Recently, simply by using Google Search, Maps and Earth from my desktop computer at home, I was able to see, locate and research the stories behind 220 Kosciuszko Memorials Worldwide, prior to visiting and photographing most of them earlier this year. Therefore I can attest to the wondrous and seemingly limitless opportunities offered by modern technology; nevertheless, I believe that the lyrics of Louis Armstrong’s 1967 hit, “It’s a Wonderful World”, remain true. Read the lyrics and you will find no reference to gadgets, gizmos, whatchamacallits and thingamabobs, nor iPhones, Apps, Facebook and Google. Zero, and it still is a Wonderful World!
It’s a Wonderful World
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world
Prof. M. Rokosz with little Ania Styczeń and her Mum |
The longer I have journeyed through life, savouring its moments and experiences, the closer I am to God, the more clearly I understand that God is a God of Infinite Surprises! From 19th July to the 8th August I had the privilege of being the volunteer driver for the Kopiec Kosciuszko delegation during their stay in Australia. Whilst in Melbourne, Kopiec President, Professor Mieczyslaw Rokosz met with schoolchildren at Dandenong, Rowville and South Melbourne. Here’s some of the ‘Wonderful World’ moments I have discerned and savoured, from the ‘chance’ encounters and connections centred at Rowville.
Connection 1 – between Francis Casimir Kajencki (born 1918 - USA, passed away 2008) and 5 year old Australian of Polish heritage, Ania Styczen. Geographically and generationally they are leagues and decades apart.
In 2012 Francis’ son Anthony A Kajencki and I became friends when we met at West Point. Anthony, a person I greatly admire for his research on Kosciuszko and others, is the President and CEO of South West Polonia Press, established by his father, Colonel Francis Kajencki, a decorated Engineering graduate of West Point who also had a master’s degree in journalism. After earning his 3rd master’s degree (history) he commenced a career in historical research and writing. As a distinguished military historian, Colonel Kajencki authored nine books with particular focus on significant contributions by Polish heroes and immigrants in American history. Much of the research work was completed by Anthony when his father began to experience failing health.
More about Col. Kajencki
Felix Molski with Anthony Kajencki at West Point |
Anthony is also Vice President and executive Board member of the American Association of the Friends of Kosciuszko at West Point. As part of my Kosciuszko Memorialised worldwide project, two key destinations in the US were the 14th Annual Kosciuszko Conference, April 28 – 29 at West Point, followed by a visit to the striking Kosciuszko Monument at Kosciusko, Mississippi, the work of gifted and dedicated sculptress, Tracy H Sugg.
Anthony generously donated 3 copies of Thaddeus Kosciuszko: Military Engineer of the American Revolution, to Kosciuszko Heritage Inc (KHI), with a retail value of about $250 landed in Australia. I gifted one copy each to Tracy and to the Mayor of Kosciusko, Mississippi. I brought the 3rd copy back to Australia for it to be presented to an entrant in KHI’s 2017 UNESCO sanctioned Kosciuszko Bicentennial International graphic arts competition. But in a “Palec Boga” moment (hand of God) when 5 year old Ania Styczen proudly and movingly presented Professor Rokosz with her vivid painting of a portrait of Kosciuszko I knew the third copy was meant for Ania, to be held in stewardship by her mother Jola, until Ania reaches her 18th birthday. Oh, what a wonderful world!
Connection 2 – the reunion in Rowville, Melbourne, Australia of Professor Rokosz with his former student, Jola Styczen, a 2003 graduate of his class at the Jagellonian University of Krakow.
Jola Styczen is one of the managers of the Saturday Polish School in Rowville, Melbourne. In another ‘Palec Boga’ moment, Jola, whose school had been left off the original program, just in the nick of time, discovered that Professor Rokosz would be meeting school children at nearby Dandenong and later at South Melbourne. When Jola rang KHI President, Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek, in Sydney to plead inclusion of the Rowville School in Professor Rokosz’s Melbourne speaking schedule I happened to be at Ernestyna’s home making final arrangements for the Kopiec Kosciuszko delegation travels. Jola and I talked briefly about the feasibility of doing this and, just in the nick of time, we were able to add Rowville to the Rokosz itinerary. Even over the phone, Jola’s energy, enthusiasm and love for the children under her care were palpable. Oh what a wonderful world!
Connection 3 – The formation of a ‘sister school’ relationship between the Saturday Polish School at Rowville, Melbourne, Australia and Szkola Podstawowa im. Pawel Edmund Strzelecki in Lesnej Polanki, Warsaw, Poland.
Warsaw. The Strzelecki School staff & guests |
On Saturday, 29th July, Professor Rokosz was met by a group of ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ students of the Polish Saturday School in Rowville, full of enthusiasm and inquisitiveness and eager to show their knowledge about Kosciuszko. I could see the joy of the occasion on the Professor’s face, to be able to share his knowledge and experiences with such a group of exuberant, excited and spirited youngsters, knowing that after his visit, Kosciuszko will remain in living memory here into the 22nd century.
Yet I had seen such ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ children before, a world away in Poland, as recently as the 16th of May, at Szkola Podstawowa im Pawel Edmund Strzelecki in Lesnej Polanki, Warsaw during the School’s celebration of the 40th anniversary of the naming of their school after Paul Edmund Strzelecki, the great humanitarian and explorer who named Australia’s highest summit on the 12th March, 1840.
I was overwhelmed with joy at the standard of the student presentations, the music and the organisation of the event. I first made contact with the directors, teachers and associates of this school in 2012 when I was working on broadening the knowledge of Paul Edmund Strzelecki humanitarian work in Ireland. I spoke to the children about what a great humanitarian their patron was, explaining how he saved over 200 thousand children from starvation at the time of Ireland’s Great Hunger in the late 1840’s.
Understandably, the children were passionate about Australiana, and I was asked by the staff if I could help to arrange, on their behalf, contact with children in Australia. I promised to do so, but, painfully for me, my efforts to make this arrangement in Sydney failed. It was a ‘Palec Boga’ moment for me seeing, listening to what Jola Styczen had inspired in the children under her care in Rowville and observing the same enthusiasm, inquisitiveness that I had earlier experienced in Warsaw.
Tracy H. Sugg with Felix Molski in her studio |
Jola has already taken the first steps to arrange a ‘sister school’ relationship between Rowville and Warsaw. For the joy in my heart at this event, next week I will send Jola a copy of The Spirit of Polonia: A Legacy to Mankind authored by Tracy H Sugg, one of a dozen gifted to me by Tracy when I visited her studio in Tennessee on the 8th May, 2017. This booklet was part of Tracy’s exhibit of portrait busts of famous Polish men & women through history that ran for three years in New York, USA. Oh, what a wonderful world! I am sure both Kosciuszko and Strzelecki are all smiles in Heaven!
I am aware that modern technology was used in these connections; however it is intrinsically the associations themselves that are much more remarkable and should not go unnoticed; they are typical of the oodles of spontaneous encounters, associations and effects in the day to day lives of billions of people alive today, just as they were from the dawn of mankind, and ever will be. If you pause for thought, you will be surprised at the number of such experiences you yourself have had throughout your life. God is a God of Infinite Surprises! Oh, what a wonderful world!
Felix Molski
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