Spatter

Flashback Friday - A European Adventure

In the summer of 1972 I traveled to Europe with a backpack, a Eurrail Pass, and two-hundred dollars in my pocket.  I was joining  up  with a high school friend who moved to Frankfurt with her family the previous year. The plan was to use her home as a base and travel around the continent for two months.  I arrived on my 20th birthday.

After a few days of settling in, we took off for our version of a Grand Tour of the continent.  We traveled by the seat of our pants, going here and there on a whim...traveling by train and sleeping in hostels.  Here I am taking a sunbath in Austria:

By and by we...or more accurately, she...got a whim to go to England to visit a friend of hers. To get there, we had to go through Paris. That's where we would catch the train that would take us to the ferry that would cross the Channel.  As it happened, the train didn't leave until that night so we had some time to kill.  We decided to kill it by going to see the Montmartre district.

It didn't take long for two Parisians to approach us for a pick-up.  My defenses went up but for some reason we decided to go along with them. It ended up that these guys showed us a great time...and showed us the area in a way that only locals could.  Then, at the end of the day, they escorted us to the train, gave us each a rose, and said good-bye. Wow. I chastised myself for being such a distrustful American and vowed I'd be less fearful in the future.  Little did I know I'd soon be testing that conviction.

After spending a week or so in comfort and ease at her friend's home, we took the ferry back to the Continent. We landed in Dunkirk late in the afternoon having never given a thought to the fact that we had  no French currency in our pockets. The local guest houses wouldn't take foreign currency and there were no big hotels...at least none that we could afford. Things were getting desperate as daylight started to fade. Then suddenly we hear a voice from behind asking us if we needed help.  Two men.  I can't speak for Cindy's state of mind, but despite my promises of being more trustful, my defense instincts kicked in and I declined their offer. They persisted, and after a few more failed attempts to get a room, my defenses got weaker and the memory of our time in Paris got stronger...I gave in.  We accepted their assistance to help change some money for us. 

Here comes the good part:

They took us to a nearby cafe. We got dinner and while eating, the two of them were having a conversation in French (one of them couldn't speak English).  After a bit, the one who could speak English turned to us and said his friend had use of his parent's flat and that we could stay overnight there if we wanted.  By this time, we had totally lost our edge and we accepted.  I can hear your moan, but...we were young and invincible...and besides, we didn't see what else we could do. It was dark now.

We walked to the flat...and yes, it was in a seedy area at the docks.  It wasn't much more than a downstairs  living room with kitchenette and an upstairs bedroom/bath. There was an unmade sofa-bed downstairs.  We were to sleep upstairs...they would sleep on it.  Yeah, right. But I still didn't bolt.  Keep in mind I was trying to atone for my past transgression of distrust.

They left and we got settled in. A bit concerned, I asked Cindy "what will we do when they come back?" Her answer came in a rather cavalier tone: "we'll just tell them we're lesbish."  What??? This didn't sound like a good idea to me, but that was her plan.  We latched the door and went to sleep.  We just crashed in our clothes...a fortunate occurrence...because a few hours later, sure enough in they came, bottle of wine in hand. Some latch. 

Cindy saw the wine and perked up, but I feigned sleep. The guy who could speak English sat down on her side of the bed, poured some wine for he and Cindy.  While this was going on, the other guy tried to wake me, calling "Juen, Juen, Juen".  He was totally drunk.  In time and after a few drinks, Cindy and her guy started making out. I'm over on the other side still pretending to be asleep thinking this can't end well.  My guy is still pulling my arm and calling my name. Then...suddenly...Cindy decided that things were going too far. She pushes her guy away. He resists.  She blurts out the words: "We're lesbish".  Oh no...it's time to get the hell out of there! I sit up and get up and head downstairs. I knew we were in for it now. 

Cindy's guy looked like he had just put his mouth on garbage.  He says angrily: "Why you let me kiss you if you're lesbish?" I never heard her answer. She managed to get around him and out the door behind me and we rush down the stairs only to find the front door locked. We're trapped. 

Now this one guy is really pissed. He has Cindy pinned up against the hallway wall repeating his question over and over.  While this was going on my guy was trying to pull me onto the downstairs bed. I don't remember how, but he and I also ended up in the hallway.  He says something to me in angry French and slaps me across the face.  Holy shit. Cindy's guy meanwhile is threatening her with a gun.  OK, I'm sufficiently scared.  I start to dry heave and at that, my guy says something even more angrily and hits his head against the fuse box.  I'm thinking my head's next, but at that, he opened the door and let me out.  Evidently, he wasn't turned on by the heaves.  Then, in a moment, Cindy followed. Our nightmare was over.  It was 4 a.m. 

We walked towards the only place we could think of to go: the train station. As we did, Cindy proclaimed: "I could have handled them". I glared, but  didn't bother to respond.

We slept on the sidewalk until the train station opened and then, took the first train to anywhere.  Anywhere ended up being Brussels. We crashed for 24 hours in a hostel and then went on to Amsterdam where Cindy immediately got her pockets picked.  She decided that was enough. She went back home to Frankfurt.  Me?  I went on. 

More Flashback Fridays can be found here.

Florida Fires

Again...fire.  Sadly, fire has become an annual occurrence in Florida.  This year, the fires burning Florida are reminiscent of those horrendous ones in 1998, when Florida's landscape was so widely charred. 

The pines planted to replace those lost that year were finally getting tall enough to make you forget how ravaged the landscape looked.  Now, they and other trees are burning again with no rain in sight.  The drought and heat has made the whole state tinder.

Lost vegetation...animals displaced and killed...homes burned to the ground.  Heartbreaking.  Set by lightning?  No...it was arson.

 

Wordless Wednesday - Boston Common Couple

"Boston Common Couple"

More Wordless Wednesday participants can be found here.

Tuesday Take - Soaring

"Soaring"

Many times I have difficulty in deciding between presenting a photo in color or grayscale. I usually like both, each giving the picture a different feel.  But this one was a no-brainer: the sky had clouds that competed with my subject and converting it to grayscale blended them away.   

Quotable Quotes

Each day is a little life.

Arthur Schopenhauer 

Food For Thought

I recently read an op-ed piece by author Thomas Friedman that I thought was spot on. I've included below as it was printed in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.  If you haven't read it yet, take a few minutes and do it now:

Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I've had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today, it's this: People want to do nation building in America.

They are not only tired of nation building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it, they sense something deeper - that we're just not that strong anymore.  We're borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore.  Our generals regularly tell us that Iran is subverting our efforts in Iraq, but they do nothing about it because we have no leverage. 

Our president's latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices.  When you, the president, after September 11th, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline. 

We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents' generation - work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means - have given way to subprime values: "You can have the American Dream - a house - with no money down and no payments for two years"

That's why Donald Rumsfeld's defense of why he did not originally send more troops to Iraq is the mantra of our times: "You go to war with the army you have."  Hey, you march into the future with the country you have - not the one you need, not the one you want, not the best you could have.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York's Kennedy Airport to Singapore.  In JFK's waiting lounge, we could barely find a place to sit.  Eighteen hours later, we landed in Singapore's ultramodern airport, with free internet portals and children's play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, as if we had just flown from the Flintsones to the Jetsons.

If all Americans could compare Berlin's luxurious central train station today with the grimy decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.

How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it's because Singapore is investing billions of dollars from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world's best talent - including Americans.  

And us? Harvard's president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in "downsized labs, layoffs of post-docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that shies away from the big research questions." Today, she added, "China, India, Singapore...have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals.  Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere."

Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is "toughening up" Barack Obama so he'll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks.  Sorry, we don't need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. I'm voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV - at 8 p.m. - from the White House East Room. 

Who will tell the people we are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes.  We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

I don't know if Barack Obama can lead that way, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn't matter is dead wrong. "Of course hope alone is not enough," says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, "but it's not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else."

It's especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted - enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach For America. They want our country to be about building wealth and dignity - big profits and big purposes.  When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts.  When we do both, said Shriver, "no one can touch us."

Think about it.

Mom

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Post Note
I was shocked to realize just how few photos I have of my mom, and worse...I have only two with the two of us together. This is one of them. Oh what I'd give for one of her hugs now! I miss her so much.

Photo Hunt: Open

"Which Way To Go"

This week's Photo Hunt had no specified topic to post.  I selected this photo because it always gives me a smile when I look at it...a couple debating over which way to go. Can't you just hear them? 



More Photo-Hunters can be found here.

Friday Fact -Bottled Water

The next time you reach for some bottled water, think of these facts:

About 25% of bottled water sold is simply re-processed/used municipal (city) water, including Aquafina from Pepsi Cola and Dasani from Coca-Cola.  Yes, Yes, the next time you reach for them, know that you're getting nothing more than water reprocessed from municipal water systems.   

 

Here's another:  about 22 percent of brands tested contain, in at least one sample, chemical contaminants at levels above state health limits.  But even if the water itself is pure, the plastic container is apt to leak chemicals such as phthalates, or Bisphenol A into the water. That's why they have expiration dates noted.  Really? If the dates are on the bottles, my eyes are too weak to find them. Of course, industry associations claim "bottled water can be used indefinitely if stored properly (cool, dark and dry places).

Yet another fact: plastic water bottles are generally recyclable, but around 80% of bottled water bottles sold in the U.S. aren't and they end up in landfills.  Worldwide, recycling rates are even lower: up to 90% of bottles are not recycled.

And finally, there's the matter of getting the bottles to us: in addition to the energy it takes to move a plastic bottle from where it is made to where it is filled, once a bottle is ready to go to market, large amounts of fossil fuel are used delivering it to us. Some bottled water is transported long distances by ship in addition to the distances it travels by truck or rail. 

Overall, the average energy cost to make the plastic...to fill the bottle...to transport it to market...and then to deal with the waste...would be like filling up one quarter of every bottle with crude oil. Think about that! 

Better all the way around to save your money and use metal bottles to make your water portable. There are lots to choose from, including those from Sigg.  Be careful though. Some that have been made in China can contain lead.   

Post Note
Be sure to read Amelia's comment regarding Sigg bottles.  I didn't know or I'd not have used them as an example! Also,  for daily eco-friendly tips, read my friend Shannon's blog Going Crunchy. They're good and oftentimes pretty simple...really!

 

Visual Art - Passion Flower

"Passion Flower"

Every so often I get in the mood to go beyond the usual post processing of a photograph and  apply artistic filters and effects to them. When I do I have a lot of fun with it...there are so many ways a photo can transform. Some may dismiss doing this, but I think of it as being just  another form of expression.  It's all art, no?

The Music Of Florida

Back in January I posted about a new state song for Florida. Well, in between then and now the state legislature got deluged by angry citizens who didn't want to retire "Swanee River" as the state's song.  There must have been plenty because last week they voted to keep an altered version of "Swanee River" as the state song. They just changed its lyrics to be less racially offensive. What about the new song?  Well, they've dubbed that the state's anthem.  So now we have a state song AND a state anthem.  Jeez...

Wordless Wednesday - Dandelion Puff

"Dandelion Puff"

If you want to participate in Wordless Wednesdays, click here

The Four Agreements

One of my favorite books is a simple little volume: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  It's an easy read. Actually, I'm not fond of its style. But its content is worth the the simplistic writing: Toltec wisdom.  Its message is that by following this code of conduct, our lives will be happier and more fulfilled.

The agreements teach concepts that are not too far from what I was taught by mother or learned in college Psychology 101...but of course here they have a metaphysical flair to them. Here are the agreements in a nutshell:

1. Be impeccable with your word:

• Speak with integrity.
• Say only what you mean.
• Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.
• Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2.  Don't take anything personally:

• Nothing others do is because of you.
• What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.
• When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3.  Don't make assumptions:

• Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.
• Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.

4.  Always do your best:

• Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick.
• Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self abuse, and regret.

You'd think I'd have mastered them by now...I can't say I have...though I do tend to get through the crises faster by remembering them.

Quotable Quotes

Love where you are, love who you're with, and love what you do.

Principle of the Findhorn Community in Northern Scotland