A Journey into the Past: Amalfi

Showing posts with label Amalfi. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Events are Impersonal and Indifferent

I am kind of in a weird mood tonight. Actually, the mood has been lingering above my head all day. I hate when something is broke and I can't fix it. When I find myself in these weird moods, I like to turn to my favorite philosopher "Epictetus". I generally just open to any page and read. Today I read Events Are Impersonal and Indifferent. When considering the future, remember that all situations unfold as they do regardless of how we feel about them. Our hopes and fears sway us, not events themselves. In any event, however seemingly dire, there is nothing to prevent us from searching for its hidden opportunity. It is a failure of the imagination not to do so. But to seek out the opportunity in the situation requires a great deal of courage. There are other several paragraphs that speak to events, but I believe I got the basis of what it means. I ask myself the question, how do you stop missing someone? How do you stop missing an entire past life-style? People do it all the time and I know the quote unquote professional answer "Time". It takes time. We can neither hurry it along or stop it. Time is time. Nothing more nor nothing less.

I spent some time sitting on the terrace outside my room in Amalfi that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. The sun felt good upon my face and I enjoyed how the sunlight danced across the water. I felt good. Alive. Every problem, every memory was hidden in my mind and all I could think about was the beauty surrounding me. Rome was fun. The sights in Venice were magnificent. But here in this magical place, I felt at peace with myself and the world. When it came time to leave, I felt sadness. When we flew back to London, I considered getting on a plane to Ireland and finding family and staying with them while working at a pub. It is a one hour flight from London to Dublin. I was so tempted. Forget about responsibility to others. Obviously, the practical Pat came back to the real world with the real mortgage, real job and real problems. So here I am looking out the window of a 10th floor Condo watching the white fluffy clouds float by in the blue sky. In the distance are trees and hills. Opportunity Epictetus says, I look towards that opportunity with anticipation.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Police Adventure Plus Some

I finally completed the upload of our trip to Italy where we started in Venice and ended in Amalfi with stops in between. It was an amazing trip and one that will remain in my memory for the days of my life. I got to know my mother and sister better in those ten days. I recognized how alike yet different we are. I believe my mother and sister are two peas in a pod. After sharing a room in Venice, Marianne opted to get her own room in Rome then when we got to Amalfi, my mother got her own room. I was the orphan child left to sleep with whoever did not get their own room. One of the things we did on this trip was laugh and when I say laugh, we really laughed. Yes. There were times when we wanted to strangle each other but most times, we laughed and laughed hard. The second day in Amalfi, my sister and I went exploring down narrow alley ways and steps. We headed down the mountain through some towns looking for a place to eat. After what felt like a million miles with toes screaming, we decided to ask an old woman where we could eat. She directed us right back to where we came from. Amalfi! We decided to catch a bus back and when it came, we raced to get on board only to realize we had coins and to take a bus, one must go to the store and buy a bus ticket. Back to square one we go. Marianne buys the tickets and since we know the buses run on the hour we sit on a bench to wait. We see a police car across the street but pay no attention. That changed when the two officers got out of the car and began putting on bullet proof vests. As one was in the trunk getting a rifle, we spot the other one with his gun. Shit! What the Hell? Marianne calls over to me, let's get the hell out of here. The bench we were sitting on was close to a bar, so we were thinking those cops were waiting for someone to exit. Marianne kept saying, "I am not getting killed in any cross fire". We started to walk and fast. Screaming toes or not, we were getting out of there. As we dashed away, a car pulls up and this man whom we do not know asks us if we want a ride. We look back at the cops and hop into the stranger's car. OK, here we are in another country jumping into some strange guy's car. We tell the guy where we are headed and asked about the cops. He tells us they are special cops who probably received a tip and were waiting down the hill for the terrorist to travel down. WTF! We are dropped off at the bottom of the hill in Amalfi and make our way finally to a market place to eat.
Stay Tuned. More stories to come.