Category: non-fiction
-
Below The Equator II: The Incident At Gate 47
[The afternoon of January 2, 2025 found me sitting on a sofa in the lobby of a Hostel. Photo is mine.] Some travel is more of a nuisance than a hardship, but travel is always a mental challenge, and even at its most difficult, travel can be an enlightenment. ~~Paul Theroux The original title of…
-
Below The Equator I: I Don’t Need A Reason To Go To Buenos Aires, But I Have A Few
[A Gaucho. Source: Wikipedia.] In Llama land, there’s a one man band And he’ll toot his flute for you… –Come Fly With Me. Songwriters: Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen. The song is referencing Peru. In Buenos Aires, tango’s a must, Even pigeons here dance in the dust. Empanadas so good, you’ll shed a tear, But watch…
-
Coal For Christmas
[Another year. Another Christmas. I republish this every holiday season with a tweak here and there. This story is true and I am passing it down to new readers and my two children and my grandson. Every story from our own lives or the lives of those we once loved…every story is worth telling. There…
-
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…
-
The Terminus
[A card, purchased at a small souk in the Marrakech Market. It is my name, Patrick, written in Arabic by a calligrapher. The cost was about $4.00. A small amount for a priceless piece of art. Important to me. Photo is mine.] The end of journey is not a period, but a comma. ~~ Anon…
-
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…
-
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…
-
I Ride A Camel Through The Dunes And Ponder The Shape Of Things
Midnight at the oasis Sing your camel to bed… ~~ Maria Muldaur Midnight at the Oasis I did it. We did it. We were shown our camels, and without any instruction at all, we road off into the dunes. Our destination was our Dune Camp. I volunteered to be first to mount the dromedary assigned…
-
Paris Inhabits Me, But Must Free Me To Wander The Dunes
[A Gargoyle contemplates Paris from Notre Dame Cathedral. Charles Laughton, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1939, says to the figure: “Why am I not made of stone like this statue?” Source: Google Search] “Paris…is loath to surrender itself to people who are in a hurry; it belongs to the dreamers…” ~~Julian Green “We’ll always…
-
Flairgate
The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with. ~~Anon I found myself propped up in bed this very morning, earlier than usual due to my extreme level of anxiety in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Europe and points beyond. After a quarter of a glass of Cold Brew, and…
patrickjegan 