April 18, 2009 at 8:01 am
Hello Everyone!
Azure and I have been home for a week now and I’ve been searching for the way to wrap up this trip but I just couldn’t find it. I was thinking about listing my favorite parts, but that seems petty. I was also thinking about sharing what I felt was the overarching theme of the trip, but I think you got the idea if you read the blogs.
Last year I wrote about my first reactions on arriving home and a lot of people had strong responses to that, so I think that’s how I want to do it. My first reaction: (read more)
As we were flying south toward Seattle I saw the Olympic mountains, dark and low and folded, and I remembered that Washington State has been populated for as long as Corsica has (Kennewick Man is 9,300 years old). Our place is as ancient as theirs, it’s just not as celebrated and I’ve never given it its due attention… our predecessors in the Pacific Northwest built with wood. No stones to run my hands across, no stones for new populations to wonder about or rebuild into new structures or interpret. Certainly there’s an archaeological record, but we don’t physically navigate history the way they do in Europe. Our culture hasn’t pulled ancient magic into the present the way they had on Corsica, but our landscape does suggest it. Where are those myths waiting?
Anyway, thank you for following us to Colombia and Europe this year. We’ll be back on the road in November.
April 9, 2009 at 4:48 am
(And, you know, not to brag, but you know the band UB40? Well, I was sitting next to their roadies on the flight home and they thought I was cool!) (read more)
So we’re back! We spent three days in London grabbing the occasional pint of cider, we went to the London Museum where I learned about the great fire in 1666 – it destroyed 80% of the city.
We went to the British Museum where I learned that cuneiform writing started as pictures then became more abstract, in later years looking like random scratches organized into columns.
We watch a lot of The Office at Ellen’s place, our first real TV experience in a long time (we had the occasional hotel tv in France, but nothing we actually used) and had great Indian food.
Ellen was an excellent host, I suggest everyone get on the next flight – Tomorrow! in fact – and go crash her pad. You won’t regret it.
This is the 8th time I’ve come home like this, looking out the window at evergreens on low hills as I’m driven north from the airport. Few of the eight are distinguishable from the others, so here we are again, being gently placed back into the impressions we’ve made in Seattle’s fabric.
I learned a ton on this trip and I’m still trying to sort it out in my head. When it comes out, it will be here!
