Scenic Routes To Paradise

 

Great gifts seem to arrive when expectations fade. Miracles are everywhere when you're not looking for anything special. The magic in the world is like floaters in your eye. Don't look at it if you want to see it.

All those hokey things you ever read about love are true. Every cornball "moon, June, spoon" rhyme in all of the mediocre pop songs ever written nailed it perfectly.

Of course loss is the other side of this lovely coin. Nothing lasts forever. Don't miss a moment. Don't just tell somebody that you love them. Tell everybody.

Wide Streets In A Ghost Town

 

While the planet sizzles I live the life of a prince in some mystical fairyland with the traffic coming towards me in the wrong lane. Loss visits and leaves that familiar, bittersweet memory that makes up all that matters.

If I could have planned a future, this would have been it. 

I wanted to save the world. Looks like the world saved me. 

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

Pirate Graves and Chips

Time drags on until time's almost gone. I suppose I'm glad that longevity tables aren't that easy to decipher. There was a point in my life where I thought that it was obvious that the whole Adam and Eve parable was about sex. Now I'm pretty sure that it's about mortality.

Is it just me or is it kinder over here?

Maybe it's just that the pushy ones don't have six shooters.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

 

What The Heck Is Bubbles and Squeak?

 

You can take the hillbilly out of Alabama but don't let him drive on the left side of the road. Cultural shock comes naturally to the uncultured. I should probably start a list of some sort of the terms that throw me. If John, Paul, George or Ringo didn't quip about it in A Hard Day's Night or Help! I probably don't have a clue as to what is being said right in front of me.

All I know is that I'm supposed to react positively to, "Alright, Mate?"

They call this English?

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

Land of Guns and Honey

Far be it from me to criticise, whine, complain. Oh, wait- that's what I do. You don't turn your back on a friend, though, especially when they're down. Somehow the good guys are gonna have to get some kind of control of the US government. 

The majority of Americans are fine, decent folks. A vast majority. I grew up with kind, fair people who shared their good fortune. 

Oh, we frequently had it wrong. Indigenous people. Slaves. The environment. I could go on but I don't want my little blog banned in Florida.

Maybe the old girl has just had her day. Empires rise and empires tumble. It surely seems to me, however, that if the majority made the big decisions again for awhile, that there's plenty of life in her.

Meanwhile, the weather is lovely in Dorset. I'll see you in October.

 

Shot Who?

 

We got a new king, you got another massacre. Sick and sorry as I feel, I have to admit to some small degree of validation. My definition of quality of life has never had much to do with GDP or stars, stripes and steeples.

I've had so many friends wish me well with some version of, "I'd go, too, if I had the nerve. I wish I could get out of here."

Well, I've had a hankering to go since Please, Please Me and She Loves You. I never left, probably because I didn't have the nerve. I still wouldn't. I fell in love.

People are people everywhere. If you're reading this, I probably miss you.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

Yeah, But Wait 'til The Sun Shines

 

Well, sir, I'm back in the UK, legally and all and not a minute too soon. Cable news in the States was about to get the better of me. Oh, I could have turned it off. Walked away. Wait- no I couldn't. I would have if I could.

School shootings and indictments. Sinking states and skyrocketing insurance bills. Half the country hates the other half and one of those sides is armed to the teeth. A Supreme Court that is reviled by pretty much everyone.

More than once I've had friends tell me, "I don't blame you. I would leave here, too, if I had the nerve."

I presume they think I'm leaving for a calmer political climate. Of course that's merely a side benefit in my case.

I left for love.