As we grow older our daily reflections become like rivers giving shape to the thoughts in our heads, and we can probably begin to make sense of things around us with less intentionality. Things come natural. Ignoring stories about ourselves doesn't require much effort. Realizing that saying some weighty things while drinking a high density hop charge IPA can make sense –that is the very definition of freedom. The question that occurs to me on a Friday night is about why anyone would read past my first line, if it wasn't about travel?
You and I, we land in some familiar foreign city - our favorite one - and we are about to do our favorite thing there. Let's say it's Paris. I want that crusty baguette with the thinly sliced saucisson. You like the tiny cafes on rue Volta. We both like to take walks and get into the life of the place. We have a knack for it.
After a little rest and a couple of glasses of whatever it is, we make our way to where there are people and lights. This is our vacation. It's familiar and still strange. I start to love you the way you deserve to be loved because I'm not so full of myself and everything that keeps reminding me of what I need to be. I'm nobody here. This is paradise. For tonight, ignorance is truly wonderful. Arghhhh. We have just arrived and we both recognize that in a short while we will have to leave.
It's a mini-life. Oh my. That's exactly what it is. We have gifted ourselves time. Time to adventure, relax, and engage in a different culture. It's as if our relationship to time changes because everything is different. The circumstances change. We are also the ones who have changed. We arrived different people than the last time we were here.
Once upon a time, I would never be home on a Friday night because I was definitely missing out on an opportunity to make my life extraordinary. Now I know that there is no end to the introductions, interaction, satisfaction. I know how to find it. It's better that I stay away and focus because this time I brought a companion and there's no way we're going to blend in the crowd. Swimming in the hot springs in Guadeloupe, doing Karaoke with a rum punch in Barbados, sitting on a bench at the bend in a narrow road in Old San Juan, most of the time we've projected what we think into what we have.
I love getting out of my comfort zone and finding new comfort, reminding myself what an incredible world we live in. Beauties, natural, artificial, constructed; and created abound and are mercilessly oblivious to our existence. But everything comes at a price. This pandemic is really fucking with our heads. I still know how to get after it - I'm always ready for someone to come to town to wants to go through it like a train, or a river - the thing is that I don't have to get after it any more.
What way would you likely proceed if you only had one long weekend left on earth?
Are you going to tell me that you would rather stay home? Is that what we've become?
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