From Puerto Vallarta to the Next War

By:  Norman J. Olson

Monday, March 2, 2020, Mary and I walked one block down McKnight Road to where the 74 bus runs.  We caught the bus around 8 am and made it to the airport to catch the direct flight from MSP to Puerto Vallarta… a good friend was getting married there on Friday, March 7, and we wanted to spend a few days enjoying the warm Mexican sun…  we stayed at a small hotel near downtown that wound up being a lot of fun…  it had lovely clean and well maintained rooms and a nice bathroom…  the reviews on line said the beds were comfortable and breakfast was included, so in the morning before we left for the airport, we booked the hotel… 

Puerto Vallarta is in the same time zone as MSP, even though it is on the Pacific coast of Mexico and flying in over the green and lush looking Sierra Madre mountains, the big jet swoops down over the coastal plane, over scattered squares of fields and lands at the smallish Puerto Vallarta airport… leaving the airport is a mad crush of people, nervous tourists, intense time share sales people, taxi touts, bus touts, and assorted waiting people… turning to the left from the airport building, it is just a five minute walk to the bus stop…  for ten pesos (about $.50), the bus goes the short 4 or 5 miles, past the cruise port, past the fancy shopping mall, past Walmart and Sam’s club to the area where the fancy resort hotels start…  and after a half hour or so of bumpy cobblestones, we got off the bus two blocks from our hotel…  the hotel had a tiled lobby with a small reception desk…  we got to our room with the help of an ancient bell person and found it very nice if a bit small, just as the reviews had said…

we strolled around the area a bit and looked at the shops on our way a couple blocks to Pepe’s Tacos which was said to have excellent tacos al pastor…  we found Pepe’s to be a small unpretentious local eatery with a huge al pastor roll on a rotisserie in front of a fire and so, we got the tacos al pastor which were delicious along with a plate of onions grilled in a salty sauce (soy sauce??)…  the young men serving were friendly and full of good humor and it was a super fun meal…  we went back twice during our visit…    as we have gotten older, travel sort of wears us out, so we were ready to sleep after our amazing dinner…  the next day, we did some shopping and walked to the fancy hotel that we were moving to on Thursday, just to see what it was like…  nobody seemed to care, so we spent the afternoon sitting in their beach chairs looking at the ocean… 

in the downtown area, restaurants were everywhere and every one we tried was very good…  Mexican food is one of the world’s great cuisine and even in modest restaurants, the Mexican people seem to enjoy making and sharing their specialized spicy and delicious dishes…  one night, I had a lovely red snapper fresh caught and grilled over a wood fire with rice, vegetables and amazing fiery salsa… and we spent one evening on the Malecon which is a waterfront embarcadero that faces the sea and runs for about a mile across the front of the downtown area…  locals and tourists mingle to watch the sunset and patronize the many bars and restaurants that look out over the beach… 

on Thursday, we moved to a much larger and fancier resort hotel and our two daughters joined us…  from the eighth floor room, we had a gorgeous view of the entire Bahia de Banderas which is a large semicircular bay bounded by blue green mountains with Puerto Vallarta in the middle…  the fancy resort hotel was a large beige tile, open air lobby leading out to brick paths through the landscaped grounds of rich tropical plants and palm trees to an enormous sprawling series of swimming pools surrounded by very nice restaurants and bars and ending with a couple dozen large thatched umbrellas in a roped off area for residents (like me LOL) to lazy to do anything else, to sit in the shade, watch the surf roll in and read, or in my case work on drawings…  I have been told that all of the beaches in Mexico are open to the public so that the hotels cannot have their roped off, private grounds extend closer that about 67 feet from the high water mark…  so, as you sit there in the shade, there is a constant parade of people with all kinds of trinkets and souvenirs to sell…  but they are not allowed on the hotel territory, so  they walk along outside the ropes…  many of them will have cases full of fake silver jewelry and you will see hawkers holding up all kinds of table cloths, blankets, sarongs and sombreros… 

on Friday, we walked to the even fancier hotel where the wedding was…  we had arranged a day pass so we could attend the wedding and hang out with our friends who were there…  the wedding was beautiful, on a paved courtyard next to one of the swimming pools and looking over the beach…  the bride was lovely in a creamy dress and the groom seemed calm in a blue guayabera shirt…  we then had a nice dinner at the buffet topped off with tres leches wedding cake…  the next day we also spent at that resort visiting with our friends although I actually slipped away to a shady spot on the beach to finish my drawings…

Sunday, we spent back at the resort where we were staying with a meal at another amazing restaurant just a few short blocks from the resort…  on Monday, we flew back home… 

this is a week where all the news in the US is about the spread of the Coronavirus…  we did not see any sign of it during this trip…  usually, I avoid political comments altogether… but, this pandemic seems to have such a large political dimension, that it requires comment… also, I worry about all of the workers in the US and around the world who are losing their incomes due to the spread of this disease and the lack of tourism which is the main income for people in many parts of the world…

whatever the outcome of this particular pandemic, it seems to me idiotic that it caught the United States so completely off guard that as a I write this, all the news is about how we are scrambling to get together materials and resources which we may need if the epidemic gets seriously worse in the United States…  it seems to me that our governmental priorities are pretty much wrong and that a few simple changes would make this a much better place to live and vastly improve our ability to deal with threats to our health and well being…  they say that you get the kind of government you want and deserve and neither party in the USA seems to me to be headed in the right direction…

if it is true that our public money is limited, as most politicians claim it is and must be, then the roll of our elected officials is mostly to determine what that limit is and then allocate the public money available to our prioritized needs…  the United States’ military budget is in the neighborhood of eight hundred billion US Dollars per year…  people seem to have no problem with spending this vast amount of money to see that we have an enormous military force available if we should need it…  even though, generally, we do not need to use much of it and what we do use of it is often wasted on controversial and not very productive campaigns…  forty million dollars of that military budget is now allocated to a space force, on the vague possibility that we are somehow militarily threatened from space… 

I could do a long and detailed analysis to show that three fourths of this budget is totally unnecessary in today’s world and seems to exist for no other reason than to give military contractors big fat contracts…  indeed, we spend more on military than most of the rest of the world put together… 

presumably all of this military readiness is to protect us if a war should come…  and we are willing to pay for it even if there is not a big war going on and hasn’t been one in seventy years because we somehow believe that this bloated military prevents war (I would argue that military spending leads to, if not big wars, at least endless small wars)… 

anyway, I would suggest that most of this money wasted on the military be diverted to spending on domestic projects to make Americans happier and healthier…  including a vastly upscaled medical establishment to provide extra capacity so that when we are again threatened by medical catastrophe, we will be able to mobilize a vast army of care givers to fight against disease and the privations disease causes around the world…  we can do better and we should do better…

amidst the horror of a World War I battlefield, a poet named Wilfred Owen wrote a poem about the soldier’s acquaintance with death and finished on a hopeful note that I think we should take to heart… 

Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier’s paid to kick against His powers.
We laughed, – knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.

(Wilfred Owen was killed in action 7 days before the armistice that ended that horrible, brutal and unnecessary war)  the “greater war” is here now…  we have had 101 years to learn the lesson taught by Mr. Owen’s poem…  can we rise to the challenge?  can we put aside greed and fear and proudly fight together as human beings against our old enemy death “for lives, not men for flags…”

Si…! Animals are Companions Too!

I had moved into my own beautiful apartment… the cleanest and the most modern I ever had… Finally my own place…! as I dreamed to have.  It was spacious with great natural light… and often a quiet place.

Silence, silence was my companion after every busy work day…

Silence, Silence, silence began to invade my emotions creating a sense of loneliness

My dream apartment! My favorite place without people… and without animals… Surprisingly, it became occasionally a place of sadness!

Then came Tito…! And soon later Chiquis…the most playful and noisiest Chihuahuas I ever met… the silence, the seldom sadness and the sense of being physically alone soon disappeared.

 Si…! Animals are companions and a special gift… Silence… became none existent… and after 8 years silence is often a wonderful opportunity.  

Announcements: Synchronized Chaos Magazine will have a presence at the upcoming Association of Writing Programs conference this year in San Antonio, TX. We’re hosting a panel discussion with Kristen Caven, Terry Tierney, Martha Clark-Franks, Jessica Delgado and Kenneth Garcia on how shared reading experiences can spark societal conversations on how to live in a changing world. This takes place Thursday March 5th at 6pm in room 311 of Our Lady of the Lake University and will be followed by an open mic.

Also, we are putting out a request for information on paying venues that could publish nonfiction essays from our regular contributor Chimezie Ihekuna. He’s got a piece on his journey to become a writer and another on self-love and body image issues related to those with disabilities. He’s raising cash to order a computer to type up and publish another book.

In this issue, Christopher Bernard reviews Cirque Eloize’s show Hotel, which suggests that a circus is like a hotel, with strange characters coming and going at different times in various places.

According to Buddhist teacher Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, our bodies are like guest houses for our minds. We know that bodies are impermanent – we don’t stay alive forever and new creatures are always being born. On another level, our minds can be thought of as guest houses for various thoughts, ideas from the world around us or from within ourselves.

Several contributors grapple with ideas that enter our minds and how we process them.

Mark Young’s poems reflect the way we think. They begin with quotes from famous people and move to a free-association phase, with subsequent lines loosely reminiscent of the topic or style of the quote.

Samantha Melamed’s poetry poses the question of how we’ll respond to the weight of our many human feelings. Mahbub depicts passions within nature and the human heart and points to religious faith as a mediator, calming the feelings by providing an external focus.

Chimezie Ihekuna’s relationship column conveys his resolve to practice chastity before marriage to prepare himself to have the discipline to respect the boundaries of his eventual relationship. He’s made a decision to accept and live by the teachings of his faith, for personal as well as religious reasons.

Abigail George offers up an emotional response to Sola Osofisan’s short story collection Blood Will Call. Her review draws out the visceral nature of his themes and the characters’ perseverance despite suffering, while asking the open question of why the global literary world hasn’t noticed the male Nigerian luminaries alongside the few women from the country who have become famous.

Ahmad Al-Khatat’s poetry reflects strength and determination to move forward in life despite sorrow.

Elizabeth Hughes’ monthly Book Periscope column reviews five titles about heroic journeys undertaken in response to personal or societal crises: Elika Ansari’s Seacity Rising, Jason Barden’s The Spitting Post, Glenn Peterson’s The Girl from Copenhagen and Jodi Dee’s The Little Green Jacket and The Dirt Girl. In the last titles, the journeys are a bit more metaphorical with smaller personal stakes, yet the underlying issues, and underlying people, matter.

Federico Wardal elucidates the contributions to Egyptian and international society President Mubarak made during his time in office and how he was remembered at his funeral. We’re aware Mubarak was a controversial leader and encourage comments and a lively discussion of his legacy from the public!

Shelby Stephenson’s stylized poetry celebrates words, family and romantic love, and his American homeland. He shows how ordinary life can be approached as a craft, when considered in the right way.

In hotels, guests from all over can encounter one another for chance, serendipitous meetings. Several pieces reflect ‘encounters’ of this sort, connections among different people, groups, or ideas.

Norman J. Olson’s essay about his travels through Maui and London ends with a poetic call to bridge gaps among nations and peoples through travel. Many of Olson’s essays deal with appreciating art from centuries ago, so he’s also crossing divides of time as well as space.

Michael Agee presents a wall that unites rather than dividing, a space for a mural that invites creativity and imagination.

Claudio Parentela’s artwork, which illustrates this editorial letter, depicts characters precariously balanced on wires or in unusual positions, as if between vastly different ideas.

Daniel DeCulla renders Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, about power struggles and becoming the bully one has defeated, into an illustrated fable. Humor here satirizes the unfair and absurd rather than entertaining readers, as he engages with writing from yesteryear.

Jaylan Salah’s poetry collection Workstation Blues incorporates experiences and encounters from her administrative day-job, reflecting her determination to pursue her creative projects even on a tight schedule.

J.J. Campbell’s pieces illustrate how despair can feed on itself, shrinking our imaginations so that we are even less able to conceive of alternatives to isolation and pain. Marc Carver’s pieces portray our human need for companionship and the lengths we go to in order to avoid loneliness.

Michael Robinson graces us with short pieces about human connection, memory and care inspired by his fellow patients during his visit to a nursing home last year.

Thank you for checking into this month’s issue of Synchronized Chaos! May you enjoy your stay.

The death of President Mubarak: a story that interests us all.

 by Federico Wardal

This is Federico Wardal’s perspective. We’re aware Mubarak was a controversial leader and encourage comments and a lively discussion of his legacy from the public!

 ——–

 On February 25, the former President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Mohammed Hosni Mubarak died at the age of 91.  “Commander of enormous value in the Egyptian Air Force and hero in the October war against Israel, he restored the dignity and pride of the Arab nation of Egypt.  A three-day mourning period is proclaimed across the country starting on Wednesday 26 February “(from press release by  the Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt).  

Mubarak has been a very important figure in our extremely complicated world history characterized by the growing speed and danger of events connected for better or worse also to the technological development of mass communication.  After the 1973 war with Israel, Egypt is in constant economic growth, tourism is flourishing as well as trade, investment, construction, industry, culture, art.  With Mubarak, the stability of the country and peace are guaranteed.  This, however, is in conflict with ten-year foreign political plans in which Egypt enters as a victim.  But the diplomatic ability of Mubarak and his staff with the great powers are genius  and in addition to safeguarding Egypt they determine an action of world peace.  

The country becomes a cornerstone of Human and Women’s and Children’s Rights thanks also to the courageous action of First Lady Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak who created new hospitals  for children and also for this reason was called   “Mubarak mother” from the Egyptians.  Moushira Khattab, in the Mubarak government, has a strict law against Female Genital Mutilation promulgated.  

With the reopening of the legendary Bibliotheca Alexandrina, where all human knowledge was kept, Egypt returns to being the world capital of culture, as it had been until the time of Queen Cleopatra VII ( 30 b.C. ) . On 16 October 2002 the enormous ultra-modern building of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (www.bibalex.org) was inaugurated in the presence of heads of state and royals from all over the planet and Mubarak and Mrs. Mubarak, who is its president, are acclaimed by  all.  Alexandria in Egypt returns to its former glory.  Its universities flourish.  Cultural, scientific and educational exchanges have a worldwide reach. Poetry is strongly promoted.   Bibliotheca Alessandrina reaches millions of visitors per year, but there is one very important detail: the Aswan declaration that founded Bibliotheca Alexandrina has the support of all the countries of the world, including Israel and Palestine.  Such a fact is unique in the history of world peace, dialogue, cooperation, development, civilization.

Mubarak establishes excellent relations with Israel.   Despite all this, pre-established foreign political plans are progressing and as expected for a number of years on September 11, 2001 the tragedy happens in NYC and the whole Arab world is being put in a bad light.  In reality, the global opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina had been scheduled in October of that same year and everything is canceled and postponed to the following year, as written.  The black clouds of NYC are programmed to spread other tragedies around the world and especially in the Arab world.  The NY tragedy is part of the “Arab Spring” program to be implemented over 10 years (2001-2011).  Mubarak continues his peace policy.  

He even acts with generosity towards members of the Egyptian aristocracy, often giving financial reimbursements for the assets confiscated from them during the 1952 revolution that brought about the fall of the Egyptian royal dynasty, dethroning King Farouk. ( As well as President El Sisi gave recently a diplomatic passport to the king Farouk son Fuad II of Egypt ) . In 2005, Mubarak, first among the presidents of Egypt, introduced Christian holidays for the benefit of millions of Egyptian Christians.  But the “Arab Spring” program must be carried out and despite Mubarak’s action for total religious tolerance, many Christians are victims of terrorist attacks.  And here in 2010 fall Tunis and its president and then Libya with Gaddafi.  The plan calls for the fall of Mubarak and Egypt.  

In 2011 there are presidential elections in Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood is unleashed against Mubarak and the military who have ruled the country since the 1952 revolution. But without the military , peace is no longer guaranteed.  The manipulation of information, especially via Face Book, ignites, propagates and feeds the revolution in the country.  Mubarak resigns on 11 February 2011. The Muslim Brotherhood begins to kill everywhere in the country whose economy also collapses due to the sudden total disappearance of tourism.  The shops previously full of all goods are empty.  Egypt is isolated, immersed and surrounded by the neighboring and neighboring countries destroyed by the Arab Spring.  

The nights of Cairo and Alexandria, always crowded, are now empty.  Curfew reigns.  Egypt loses its face.  A permanent cordon of students defends Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  But the Egyptians are beginning to realize that the Muslim Brotherhood are just killing mercenaries and people are shouting at them: “you are not Egyptians, you are not Muslims, go away!”  A counter revolution in the revolution.  Cairo is sacked and violence, intense as never seen before, explodes.  Mubarak is imprisoned and his name removed everywhere.  Mohammed Morsi proclaims himself president, but after a year of struggle, Egypt rises up against him, because he is aware of the game that leads to the total destruction of the country and unanimously proclaims Abdel Fattath El Sisi as president, military like Mubarak on 8 June  2014.  El Sisi must rebuild Egypt and its economy and build a new arm of the Suez canal in just three months! An absolute record in history.  Egypt, in less than a year from the total catastrophe, regains its face, but the Egyptians, shocked, do not realize it.  

Some terrorist attacks against Christians and even Muslims, but heroically Egypt challenges everything and everyone and terrorism is severely repressed.  Mubarak is released and the new generations begin to appreciate the absolute guarantee of peace obtained thanks to Mubarak for thirty years.  Mubarak hasn’t changed.  He always has the kindness, intelligence and determination that characterize him at every meeting.  Mubarak above all loves his country more and more and helps him as he can, always making available his great experience.

 The country continues its growth, despite the serious economic injuries and the development programs started with the Mubarak government are being implemented as the strengthening of the metropolitan networks of Cairo (22 million inhabitants) and the creation of the immense modern New Cairo in the area of  new modern and huge international airport.  But the great news will come in June and we will talk about it extensively.  This is the opening of the majestic museum of Giza, in the area of ​​the three pyramids and sphinx.  A great contribution to this realization was given by the Egyptian archaeologist Zaki Hawass, living legend, of which we will speak soon.  President El Sisi, proclaiming three days of national mourning for the death of former President Mubarak, surely and completely met the wishes of the Egyptian people. Mubarak smiles happily at his Egypt and the world.

A Long and Winding Trip 2020

By:  Norman J. Olson

January 10, 2020, was a Friday…  we fly on employee passes…   if you love to travel but do not have any money, I suggest getting a job at an airline…  usually travel benefits are terrific while you are working and at most airlines, 10 years on the job and achievement of a ripe old age can get you retirement flight benefits for life…  often these retirement benefits are not quite as good as the flight benefits of active employees, but they are still very good and can make travel opportunities available far beyond what most people dream of…  the downside is that you usually have to travel last minute and you only go if there are empty seats, so, since the airlines have gotten really good at filling every seat, it requires some flexibility and willingness to dig to find routings that work to some destinations…  the upside, besides cheap travel, is that working for the airlines can be a lot of fun…  there are a lot of people there just for the travel benefits which makes a fun and travel savvy set of coworkers… if you work on the ramp (where the airplanes are parked) you get a lot of good exercise stacking and handling bags, backing out planes, moving ground equipment, etc… and you get to work outdoors which some people really like…  mostly it is cool to work around the planes…  if you like machines, they are so big and such amazing feats of engineering, that just to walk around them or climb into the cargo bin, or stop your tug while a huge double deck airbus crosses your path, is pretty much a gas…

I worked for the airlines, nights and weekends back in the early 2000s while attending grad school (as an older nontraditional student) and my wife worked for the airlines until her retirement a few years ago…  so, we now have super cool retirement passes for flying…  I have worked lots of jobs in my life but none that was as cool as loading bags for the airline…  I never minded the cold or the rain and snow, the exercise had me fit and the people I worked with were very special…

anyway, Mary and I learned at the end of last year that some friends of ours would be in Maui for a week in January…  they invited us to join them… so, we caught a flight to Las Vegas on January 10…  Hawaii is not an easy place to get to during the winter, but we found a routing through Vegas that had plenty of seats to Maui…  so, we spent the weekend in Vegas doing our usual, Mary gambled and I spent my time hanging out with my drawing board…  we had free rooms at some nice Vegas hotels due to Mary’s gambling exploits, so we ate some buffets and stayed in luxurious rooms first looking out over the swimming pool and the Las Vegas Strip and then looking out over a golf course…  then, on January 14, we caught an early morning flight to Maui…  we were planning to meet our friends who were coming in from the east coast via Dallas/Fort Worth…  and our friend’s sister coming in from China via Honolulu… 

so, we were sitting in Starbucks which is the only restaurant type place outside security in the Maui airport and Mary said, “see that girl? I think that is the sister…”  we had never met the sister but Mary walked over and talked to her and indeed it was the right person, so we had a nice visit waiting for the others to arrive…  when they got there, we had a great reunion, since we had not seen them for a while, with lots of hugs, they really are great friends…

they then rented a big SUV and we drove to Kehie where they had reserved a lovely two bedroom condo for the week looking out on Kalama park which is a narrow strip of grass and trees maybe a block wide that runs out to a rocky beach…  so we had a fine view of the ocean and the spectacular Maui sunsets from our balcony…  although the first night, we walked across the street to the park and sat on a bench while the sky got all fiery and the orange sun settled into the Pacific Ocean…

 the next day we tried to drive to Hana but it was raining and part of the southern road had washed out so we turned back… Hana is entirely around the back side of Maui from the only real city on the island which is Kahului…the 10,000 foot volcano Haleakala is between Kahului and Hana and the road that runs around the base of the mountain is rustic, one lane and not an easy drive…

the next day we went to Kaanapali beach, one of the premier beaches in the world which was about an hour drive away…  it was windy with intermittent rain but Mary and I sat in some beach chairs under a palm tree and watched the young people play in the surf and snorkel…  the misty rain did not seem to be much of a problem as the wind would blow the clouds away and a warm sun would come out between mists…  and we saw lots of the famous Hawaiian rainbows!!

from our condo, we had nice walks through the village of Kehei which has lots of restaurants and coffee places…  the houses on the ocean are huge multimillion dollar mansions, and I believe that even the more modest houses a ways from the ocean are quite valuable… but it was interesting to walk around the neighborhoods and rest in the park while we watched the surf lessons going on just out from the one sandy stretch of the beach in Kalama park…  one day while we were sitting there watching the surf lessons, a guy took a dog out on a surf board…  the dog was wearing a doggy life vest, but seemed perfectly at home on the surf board as the blond dude paddled out and then expertly surfed in with the dog standing on the front of the board…  on one of his trips in, he did a handstand for those of us watching as he surfed in with the dog on the front of the board…  pretty cool to see a real life Surfer Joe  LOL…

so, the next day our friends decided to try the Hana Road again because we had all heard about what a beautiful drive it was…  so this time we went around the north side of Haleakala which is rain forest jungle and true to form, it rained part of the way…  we stopped at one point at a tin roofed shack that was selling bbq made there on a wood fire…  it was delicious to eat sitting on a picnic table while rain poured down on the tin roof…  and chickens were scratching in the mud at our feet…  driving on, we stopped to walk in a park and look at the towering white and multicolored trees and the flowering bushes…  as we were following the path that ran along a little mountain river, under the jungle of huge trees, a wild pig trotted out to the path to have a look at us…  found that we were not very interesting and walked over to a rotted log by the river where I think he was rooting for grubs… 

we made it to Hana but did not linger as we wanted to get through the challenging southern road around the mountain before dark…  this road was badly damaged by an earthquake a few years ago and in some places is little more than a path…  but it was open, so we headed out…  there is less jungle on that side of the mountain, but we saw more gorgeous waterfalls, one multi-tiered with curtains of water falling into the pool by the road… and then the road was high with wide views of cliffs and the sea on our left and the vast slopes of the mountain to the right…  there were herds of cattle wandering on the road and the slopes which seemed to be mostly grassland… and thanks to the skill of our friend who drove and the fact that he had the foresight to rent an all terrain truck type vehicle, we were able to enjoy all of the wonderful scenery of the rugged Hana road without mishap…  we came across a park on our way back to Kehei dedicated to the important Chinese historical figure Sun Yat Sen…  which our Chinese friends were very excited to see and they told us all about Sun Yat Sen…

the next day, our friends had booked a snorkeling tour, so we took the city bus to the port of Maalaea where we booked a whale watching boat ride…  this is the time of year when gigantic humpback whales are plentiful in the waters all around Maui, so we did the boat tour for a couple of hours before sunset…  we saw many many enormous grey/black whales breeching out of the water, diving with their vast flukes on display and rolling around on the surface…  we saw mother whales with their babies…  it was all very cool to see with the cliffs of that part of Maui in the background and at the end, another spectacular sunset… then we met up with our friends for a great dinner at a sushi restaurant in Kahului…  on the 21^st of January, we said goodbye to our friends when they dropped us at the airport for a 4 pm flight to Seattle…  we spent the night in Seattle and the next morning flew home, back to the ice and snow of Minnesota winter…  our overall impression of Maui was that it had a very small town feel… Kahului is not a very big city and the other towns on the island are all small…  away from towns, it is surprising how much of the island is rural, undeveloped farm fields and on the north slope of Haleakala, jungle, on the south slope cattle ranches…  it was very relaxed and laid back with wild chickens underfoot at any of the many open air restaurants and bars… 

so, we were home for a few days and decided to go to London as we have done for several years now in January… we actually planned the trip in two days and left on the nonstop from MSP to London Heathrow on the evening of Saturday February 1…  Mary loves the London plays and I love the museums, so we saw a different West End musical every evening and spent our days in art museums… although it is chilly and rainy in London at that time of year, it is warm compared to Minnesota and the weather seems to keep the crowds down a bit…  in summer, central London can get so crowded that it is really not much fun…  we stayed in an area we had not stayed in before, at a small hotel on Seven Sisters Road across from Finsbury Park…  I wanted to try the hotel because it was said to have a great full English breakfast, comfortable beds and was only a block from the Piccadilly line subway, which runs 24/7 every few minutes to Leicester Square where the theaters are and which is a few blocks from the national gallery…  and also on the Victoria line which goes to Pimlico, a few blocks from the Tate…  we spent two days in the National Gallery focusing on Bronzino’s amazing Allegory, a long time favorite of mine and of course, looking at the Leonardo, Titian and Raphael paintings…  which make me wonder how presumptuous it is for me to even pick up a brush when I see the miracles those guys made with paint on a surface…  I also spent a lot of time looking at landscapes which have been occupying my own work somewhat of late…

at the Tate, I looked at the Francis Bacon “three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion”…  Bacon was a wonderful painter and his style of spontaneous rapid execution is a technical wonder to me…  plus I love his odd iconography, one of the few twentieth century painters I really care about…  and of course, I looked at my favorite pre-Raphaelites in the Victorian room…  which include a gorgeous Rossetti (Proserpine, a lovely portrait of his girlfriend, Mrs. Jane Morris) which is unfortunately hung so high and at such a bad angle to the light that you cannot see it except from entirely across the room and from that distance, the subtlety of the detail that I love to see is all lost…  we wandered around St. Paul’s Cathederal one day and went to the Guildhall gallery to see another Rossetti which is perfectly hung and so, I could study every detail…  we spent one day making a quick train trip to Oxford to see the pre-Raphaelite murals in the Old Library…  these murals were painted directly on a surface that was not properly prepared (the pre-Raphaelites were not muralists) so they deteriorated rapidly and now, although they have been restored, there is not a lot that can be seen…  still, the painting of these murals, especially by Rossetti, Burne Jones and William Morris as well as some lesser artists was a vital chapter in pre-Raphaelite history and I have read so much about the event that I wanted to try and see the murals…  so, we went to the main Oxford University art museum, the Ashmolean to see their collection of pre-Raphaelite art and there I asked for directions to the Oxford Union which I had read was now known as the Old Library…  the information guy had never heard of it, but looked on line and found directions…  I had looked and looked but had not been able to find directions on line…  so, we followed his directions which brought us to a wall with a wrought iron gate with a coded lock… a sign said the Old Library was on the other side of the gate…  so we waited until a student punched in the code and followed the student through the gate…  when we got to the Old Library, we found that nonstudents could indeed go in and look at the murals, but would have to pay three pounds (about four dollars) each, so we paid up and went in…  the building is three stories tall with a narrow balcony running around one story up…  its footprint is maybe thirty by sixty feet…  the walls are all shelves with floor to ceiling books… at the top of the second story is a slanting wall up to an arched ceiling…  the slanting wall is where the murals are and the arched ceiling is covered with a leaf design by William Morris…  it was so cool to see the actual paintings and to think of all the stories I have read about how this was where Rossetti first met Jane Burden who became the love of his life, his favorite model and part of his ménage a trois with William Morris…  where Burne Jones and Rossetti cemented their friendship doing work funded by John Ruskin…  well…  at the time of our visit, the Old Library was full of students sitting in easy chairs and at tables on the ground floor reading and studying…  so, it is a space still in use… from the balcony, I had a close up look at the bottom of the murals so could see exactly what was going on technically…

another day, we walked through St. James park to Buckingham Palace…  we stopped at the ornate gate and looked through the bars at the famous guards with their big hats…  although, there were also real guards with machine guns by the entry gate…  where VIPs came and went…  St. James park has a small pond with ducks, some odd looking geese and lots of people strolling along the asphalt path…  it was very pleasant to sit for a while in the slightly warm sun and people watch…

in the evening, we would go to a play…  Mary loves musical theater, so we saw lots of musicals including The Waitress, 9 to 5, School of Rock, Come From Away, and &Juliet all of which were within walking distance of Leicester square…  we would have a nice dinner someplace before the play…  we worked up a good appetite walking all day and were ready to sit someplace and eat before the play…  London used to be a place where decent food was virtually impossible to find but that has changed much since our first visit in 1972 and now there is great food of every kind everywhere…  we had an especially memorable meal in a Greek restaurant on The Strand just a block from one of our theaters…  we did not know what everything was, but it was all delicious…  the plays were all fun and interesting…  for School of Rock, we wound up with tickets in the very front row and during the performance of one of the rock numbers, the “rock star” character, dressed like Axel Rose, came on his knees and sang the sexy part of his song to Mary which was fun and funny, especially when he winked and cocked his finger at her before jumping up and getting on with the act… one day we had a nice walk in Finbury park and another day we walked along the Thames from Millbank to the Houses of Parliament…  at night after he plays, we would walk from the theater to the nearest tube stop…  London is a great city for walking around as there is old and interesting architecture everywhere and lots of interesting shops to look at…  we also rode some buses to some of our destinations and so got to see various London neighborhoods we passed through…

On Saturday, February 8, we took the Victoria line to the Victoria Station stop, got a bus at Victoria Coach station at about ten am and headed for Amsterdam…  after being shuttled through the tunnel under the Channel with only minimal boarder checks, we were in France… it was a rainy day so the flat fields of Flanders were lovely and misty with neat farm houses and small towns…  from Calais, we headed north passing Ghent in the afternoon and Antwerp in the evening… by the time we got to Rotterdam it was dark and we rolled into Amsterdam Sloterdijk station at about ten pm… we figured out their fully automated station and got a train for Schiphol Airport…  I had found a really nice hotel with a shuttle, so we spent the night in style in a suite looking over the airport and the next morning took the shuttle back to Schiphol…  we then caught a direct flight to MSP…  and home…

we got home on February 9,  and left again on February 12, for a visit to our daughter in Southern California…  for our grandson’s birthday…  we watched an archery meet, soccer games and volleyball games featuring our wonderful grandkids and enjoyed spending time with our daughter and her husband… Mary has gotten to enjoy being away from Minnesota during some of our long cold winter, so she stayed in California for another week of sunshine and grandkids…  I love visiting the kids and grandkids and really have enjoyed all the travel, but was really glad to get home a couple days ago to get my snow shovel out and get some things done around the house that I just have not had time for this year so far…  so, on Tuesday, February 18, I caught the Metrolink train in Rialto, made it to Union Station and then on the Flyaway bus to LAX…  it was evening, and the traffic was light, so the bus ride from Union Station to the airport was relatively quick, about 35 minutes… from the bus down the 110, it is always interesting to see the lights of Los Angeles, the buildings of USC, the wide rivers of automobiles at all hours of the night and day on the freeways of central Los Angeles, the high bridge over several layers of freeway where the 110 meets the 105 and after the residential area of Inglewood, the vast and busy runways of LAX..  I caught the red eye at midnight and was on the ground in Minnesota Tuesday morning to catch the bus from MSP home at about 6 am…  it had been a great series of travels from the warm misty rain of Maui to the glorious art museums and rainy streets of London and then the warm sun of  Southern California… but actually Tuesday morning, it felt good to have my snow shovel back in my hands and to get the snow cleared from my driveway and walk to my exacting standards… LOL…  future travel plans???    well, we have a wedding in March in Puerto Vallarta, but other than that nothing planned…  although there are some really good interline rates on cruises with the corona virus scare, so who knows???

Memory of the Road to Hana, January 2020

brown cows on a green

volcanic slope down to

cliffs

and the impossibly blue

Pacific ocean

sparkling in the sun…

learning some history of

the great

and beautiful

people of China, and hoping

the big Ford does

not get stuck in the mud

or fall into

a ravine…

and yes, the waterfalls are

like misty eyed angels

dancing on the rocks…

London 2020

we walk

with our warm jackets

through the new entry to

the National Gallery where

the security guard

decides I am not

a threat…  we walk

into rooms of walls covered

with painted images that

I learned to love

as a child looking at

pictures in a book…

my eyes are dazzled by

Bronzino’s twisty allegory

with a blue

like the sky over

Haleakala on

a sunny day…

Travel

travelling has taught me

the simple truth that

people are my brothers and

sisters

everywhere…

we all have our loves and our babies,

our frailty, our

strength and our mortality…

technology, religion, nationalism, money or politics

can only defeat our love for each other

and destroy our lovely planet

if we allow them to…

barriers between us

become small when we practice

simple

peace and tolerance, make

art

and love instead of war

and

use our fighting spirit and our fanaticism

to make war against

war, disease, poverty, racism, nationalism and

intolerance…

like a free thinking Victorian, I believe

that heaven or hell are

ours to make… right here,

right

now

and we carry the souls of

our brothers and

sisters

in our

hands and in our hearts…