Category: Melancholy Thoughts

• Breakfast in Marrakech/Dinner in London

  [Trafalger Square, London. The National Gallery of Art in the background. A fast car in the foreground. A lion and a blue-lit fountain in the middle ground. Photo is mine.] Keep calm and go to London… The title above makes it sound like it’s a skip and a flip to make the three and a…

  patrickjegan

  September 29, 2024

  art, death, England, Melancholy Thoughts, non-fiction, Travel Writing, Travels

  #flighttolondon, #graveofkarlmarx, #highgatecemeterylondon, #taphoplile, cemetery, highgate-cemetery, History, London, Travel

• At The Monkey Finger Mountains: The Palm Frond Boys And The Sad Girl

  [The Monkey Finger Mountains in the Sahara. Photo is mine.] Nearly every bone and muscle in my body was saying to me: Did you just ride into the desert on a large animal with a large hump? I ignored the voices coming from the dark regions of my body and sat back in the seat…

  patrickjegan

  September 23, 2024

  Blogging, Deserts, Gender Studies, Melancholy Thoughts, non-fiction, Religion, Travel Writing, Travels

  #lonelymuslimgirls, #lonliness, #patriarchalsocietyofmorocco, #themonkeyfingermountains, abuse, happiness, inspiration, relationships

• A Tale of Very Old Water Tunnels, Dying Palms & A Police Citation

  [One of the many towns we encountered on our way west…toward Marrakesh. Photo is mine.] Traveling-it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~~ Ibn Battuta The Great Dunes are behind us. My dream of riding into the largest desert in the world has been fulfilled. I have no regrets, except for the…

  patrickjegan

  September 22, 2024

  death, Deserts, Dreams, Melancholy Thoughts, Mountains and Memories, non-fiction, Real Personal History, seniors, Travel Writing, Travels

  #datepalmsburnedonpurpose, #moroccandatepalmtrees, #morocco, #oldaqueductsinmorocco, #recentrainsinmorocco, #watertunnelsinmorocco, Africa, desert, namibia, Travel

• I Will Learn to Speak Camel

  [Source: Google search.] The desert is a natural extension of the inner silence of the body. ~~Anon On September 23, 2024, give or take a day or three, I will say “Bayokav” to a camel. The odd-shaped creature will stand from a kneeling position. I will be sitting, hopefully in comfort, on the gentle beast.…

  patrickjegan

  July 13, 2024

  Deserts, Dreams, Dreams and Goals, England, Melancholy Thoughts, non-fiction, Travels

  #deserts, #dreamscancometrue, #morocco, #saharacameltrip, #thesaharadesert, travels

• Dark Odds Indeed

  [The Nobel Laureate. Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan. Source: Google Search.] Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. ~~Henry David Thoreau Bob Dylan, American singer and songwriter, will be eighty-three years old on May 24. As I write this I realize that that’s old. True, not old to many people who are…

  patrickjegan

  May 24, 2024

  Blogging, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan Lyrics, Childhood, daughter, Holding onto the Past, In Search of Lost Time, Love, Melancholy Thoughts, Memories, music, non-fiction, son, Time

  #agingrockstars, #bobdylanlyrics, #bobdylansbirthday, #rockstars

• Is My Enchiridion Indulgentiarum Account Balanced?

  [Purgatory. Credit: Shown Above] Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. ~~Patrick Egan Fantastical Essays v. 1 (2024) In Saranac Lake, New York, on a warm and humid day in 2017, an elderly woman crossed Church Street safely because of something Sister John James said to me in 1957. This was no small feat because…

  patrickjegan

  April 11, 2024

  Adirondacks, brotherly love,, Childhood, death, Everyday Events, Melancholy Thoughts, North Country Life, owego ny, Premonitions, Religion, satire, The Pope

  #Crusades, #Eternaldemnation, #gooddeeds, #Heaven, #Hell, #Indulgences, #PopeUrbanII, #Purgatory, #Salvation, #Saranaclakeny, Christianity, heaven, hell, jesus, Purgatory

• Anemonia Keeps Me Awake

  Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out. ~~Richter [The Berlew Family Reunion. Orange, PA. September 6, 1926. Photo: Egan Family Archives.] I don’t think it rained that day. There are no clouds in the sky. I should know. I’ve crawled inside this photo more than once over the years. One…

  patrickjegan

  March 19, 2024

  Childhood, death, Everyday Events, Family, grandparents, Grandson, History, Holding onto the Past, Home, Love, Melancholy Thoughts, Memories, Susquehanna River

  #familyreunions, #pennslyvania, #pennslyvaniafamilyreunions, family, Familyreunions, life, memories, photography, photos

• The Last Quarter Moon Gives A Pale Wintry Light/Late Night Thoughts Following Spinal Surgery

  {Author’s Note: This blog post contains a photograph of an x-ray of my lower back taken six days after my spinal fusion. If the image of hardware screwing together two of my vertebra is irksome to you, my gentle readers, then feel free to search for another fine read. I have 645 in the bank.…

  patrickjegan

  February 16, 2024

  Blogging, death, Holding onto the Past, In Search of Lost Time, Medical Center, medicine, Melancholy Thoughts, Memories, music, New York City, owego ny, Premonitions, Real Personal History, seniors, Time, winter

  #lumbarsurgery, #melancholoythoughtsatnight, #nancigriffth, #newyorkcitylatenightthoughts, #painandinsomnia, #patioatnight, #postsurgerypain, #sarahjaroaz, #waltwhitman, life, love, poetry, short-story, sleep

• The Gravity of Manhattan: Three Worlds

  [Upper East Side Buildings. Photo is mine.] Do you know what the sounds of this city are? Screams. All those buildings are gray with sadness. ~~ Soji Shimada As I walked down the street from Broadway, I paused to listen… When I secured a teaching position in New York City in the very early 1990s,…

  patrickjegan

  January 26, 2024

  evolution, Home, In Search of Lost Time, Melancholy Thoughts, Memories, New York City, Night Sounds of the City, non-fiction, winter

  #listeningtothenight, #lonelycities, #nightsoundsofnewyork, #winterinthecity, New York City, new-york, NYC, winter

• Dark Night/Dark Happenings

  [A British tabloid. Photo: Google Search] I can’t Imagine… ~~ Patrick Egan It was 1980. I was teaching Oceanography and Earth Science at the Ridgefield High School in Connecticut. Monday, Dec. 8, was a normal day of classes. Late that afternoon, Parent/Teacher Conferences were scheduled. I was a new faculty member and somehow I scored…

  patrickjegan

  December 8, 2023

  death, England, History, John Lennon, Melancholy Thoughts, Memories, New York City, non-fiction, Real Personal History

  #1980, #deathofjohnlennonnyc, #John Lennon, Death of John Lennon, New York City