Back aboard the ship, after our day on the beach… dinner is done… we shared a bottle of Zinfandel Port brought from home with our table mates… We had a nice table for dinner… a couple from Boston, a couple from Florida (formerly from New York)… a couple from Scotland… we also had a couple from Florida (also formerly from the northern eastern seaboard) who while not assigned to our table acted as substitutes when one or another couple was eating elsewhere… much in the spirit of the people who sit in the seats at the Academy Awards when someone needs to go to the restroom…
Part of cruising is socializing with people you don’t know… much as one might at a B&B (bread & breakfast…) We made friends at lunch… at cocktail parties… we made connections… but the connections remind me of Vonnegut’s false connections… connections in passing… connections for the moment… Literature again defines life…
Now after 10:30 pm… We are in our room… We are mostly packed… In 10 minutes or so we will be ready to put the suitcases outside… the clean clothing for tomorrow is laid out… The library is packed…(I travel with books… books collectively constitute a library… this one is about travel… ) We have thrown out much of the mass of paper we received… ads for art auctions, the New York Times “at sea” edition, invitations to make reservations for future cruises… multiple invitations to multiple Captain’s cocktail parties… I took a couple of AAA travel guides, one for Florida, one for the Caribbean, and abandoned them in the ship’s library… I don’t need to carry them home…
The computer is still out, along with appropriate cords… (without the computer I would not be writing this…) I have backed up all the photos to a portable drive, and that is packed… there are a lot of photos… most have been sorted… flipped or cropped as needed, the bad ones deleted, the good ones named… ready to upload when I find a place with a decent internet connection… There is the tail end of a bottle of Scotch on the table… too little to take home, too much to just gulp…
The seas have calmed… we are likely in one of the many passages inside the Bahamas, and are now sheltered from the Atlantic swells…
I have the Waifs playing on the computer… I never think of my laptop as a music device, but it is, and there is some good stuff there… the Waifs, Gillian Welch, and some Matt Nathanson… bits and pieces from others… While I own and use (the lovely Tina might say addicted to) computers, I am a grey beard, and occasionally don’t think of them beyond their abilities as word processors or portals to the internet… I understand that they are also musical machines; movie players… a complete entertainment system… but I usually don’t think that way…
Tina just peaked out into the hall… our bags are gone… beyond recall… the cruise is fast moving towards the end… The end brings thoughts of why we journey, and about the next journey… of the purpose of the journey… The questions are likely rhetorical… without a specific answer… This trip was more about relaxation… a respite… we did visit a couple of new places… Grand Turk and San Juan… I found a San Martin I hadn’t before… an old Dutch city behind Diamonds International…
I took a lot of photos… Some I really like… I am thinking of picking 12… the best 12… or maybe just my favorite 12… 12 that tell a story, or at least say something about the places I visited… a portfolio… Off the top of my head I know of two that will make the cut… The first a photo of a hawser, a heavy mooring line, against a background of the ships dark blue hull…. The second, a series of arched passage ways in the depths of El Moro… Beyond that there are many that come to mind… not any that are automatic… there is a pawn shop sign from St Martin… a sign for the African Market… also from St Martin… There are several of doorways in San Juan… one of a bar… There is a photo of a statue through a barred window in San Juan… there are actually several of that statue… of the same statue, from different windows, from the same window but framed differently… it was a powerful image… I will choose one. There is a photo of the cracks in the iron light house, on Grand Turk… maybe the sign for the prison… I need to find 12… this sounds easier than it is… the 12 need to be good, no, great… If this works, if it gels… I will print each photo, mat each photo… a proper portfolio…
A photo is an interesting thing… a vision of a moment… a fraction of a second… a point of view… an edited vision of a place, a time… I took many, some illustrations of the place… some with deeper emotional meaning… at least to me… If my vision was pure they may have meaning to others as well… maybe even you…
The Waifs are still signing… their singing is more than song… for me, it is taking me back to an evening in a theater in Santa Cruz… The lovely Tina and I drove down after work… found the theater… listened… both girls were pregnant… very pregnant… The concert was good, beyond good, special…. The songs are taking me back there… as I hope the best 12 photos might take me back…
The photos may be the answer to the question why we journey… as the blog is the answer… I am not comfortable just going… just escaping… I want to record it… to explain it… mostly to myself… If you enjoy it all the better… but this blog is really for me… sorry if I am being selfish…
Here on the ship there is an art auction… all cruise ships have art auctions… it is part of the ritual… The art auction folks will tell you why you should buy the art they sell… each piece seems to have a story… I don’t think I buy the story (I have never bought the art…) Tina and I have a house full of art… Her mother was a painter… we have many of her paintings… many good… others just part of a family tradition… we have a painting, a wedding gift from a cousin. We have a couple of prints… from known artists… we have some of my photos… We have folk art... a 19th century Indian basket… items from Mexico, from Peru, a rug from Peru on the wall… it seems that the difference between the art here on the ship, and the art on the walls at home is the story made up by the commercial auctioneers… I think I prefer our art… the art created or collected by our family… just as I prefer to escape the cruise port where they plan my experience, in favor of the local town, the local market and the beach shack…
I think I am defining my future travel choices… my “why I travel”
Now late Saturday, or maybe early Sunday… trying to post the above, but the computer gods are not cooperating… To bed for now…
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