Without any apology, I admit - I am a travel enthusiast, well... travel junkie is more fitting. I just can't get enough of it, I am positively hooked on going places, the novelty of meeting new peoples, learning the stories of their cultures, and of course the colours and unique perpectives enriching their languages.
Speaking on another more primal 'raw chaw' level, I'd say there is nothing quite like leaping into the sky, racing onto another's tarmac; and leaving the baggage of your burdens a yard (at home). You get to emerge, as from a cocoon, in elsewhere even as someone else if you so choose.
But truth be told, I've only been to x places and I am currently fanning a never ending wish list of places I am craving to see: Alaska, couple places in France, Cuba (again), Amsterdam, the Dalmatian Coast, Hungary, St. Martin, Germany, Peru, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, China, Japan, Jamaica - Dunn's River Falls, Mayfield Falls, Nanny Falls ... you get the picture, right? As you must imagine, getting there is an entirely different story. So in the interim, I'm travelling there on the bus of imagination and riding the turns of a page. Since October of last year I have met countless of unforgettable characters, searched out the nooks and crannies of their spaces and experiences - all with the turning of a page, pages and covers. I must admit too, that I get attached, saddened at times when the plot ends and I have to leave them behind the covers. This is, of course, until I make another good find and 'travel' to somewhere else. But what's so good about the page is that the characters are immortalised between the covers and can come back to life with a quick look back. This, I believe is the best preparation for the time when I will actually get to touch down on these places in real life then, it will be heart and soul chocolate and skittles.
So far, I've been to: Jamaica in The Painted Canoe
The Painted Canoe by Anthony C. Winkler takes you into the simple life of peasant Jamaican fishermen skirting life/death on the paradise island. Winkler skillfully moves in and across the folk perspective of Zechariah and the intellect of the learned doctor - the two categories of perpectives alive, governing and duelling in the Jamaican psyche. Zechariah however, emerges as the face of unsung Jamaican heroes - poor, proud, ugly, unlearned, tough with a stubborn faith and indomitable human spirit that only fret kills. Ironically, it is the esteemed doctor - whose creative intellect fails to reconcile faith and purpose with the reality of human agony in this physical and sexual paradise - who kills himself. Certainly, in this novel, you see a frightening side to the sun, sea and paradise of this tropical island; but you also find that its true wealth is its people who in the face of such a frighteningly agonising reality of sufferation do much more than merely survive - they lead happy, meaningful, content and spiritually rich lives.
Well enough for one day, more anon.
S.S.
Speaking on another more primal 'raw chaw' level, I'd say there is nothing quite like leaping into the sky, racing onto another's tarmac; and leaving the baggage of your burdens a yard (at home). You get to emerge, as from a cocoon, in elsewhere even as someone else if you so choose.
But truth be told, I've only been to x places and I am currently fanning a never ending wish list of places I am craving to see: Alaska, couple places in France, Cuba (again), Amsterdam, the Dalmatian Coast, Hungary, St. Martin, Germany, Peru, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, China, Japan, Jamaica - Dunn's River Falls, Mayfield Falls, Nanny Falls ... you get the picture, right? As you must imagine, getting there is an entirely different story. So in the interim, I'm travelling there on the bus of imagination and riding the turns of a page. Since October of last year I have met countless of unforgettable characters, searched out the nooks and crannies of their spaces and experiences - all with the turning of a page, pages and covers. I must admit too, that I get attached, saddened at times when the plot ends and I have to leave them behind the covers. This is, of course, until I make another good find and 'travel' to somewhere else. But what's so good about the page is that the characters are immortalised between the covers and can come back to life with a quick look back. This, I believe is the best preparation for the time when I will actually get to touch down on these places in real life then, it will be heart and soul chocolate and skittles.
So far, I've been to: Jamaica in The Painted Canoe
The Painted Canoe by Anthony C. Winkler takes you into the simple life of peasant Jamaican fishermen skirting life/death on the paradise island. Winkler skillfully moves in and across the folk perspective of Zechariah and the intellect of the learned doctor - the two categories of perpectives alive, governing and duelling in the Jamaican psyche. Zechariah however, emerges as the face of unsung Jamaican heroes - poor, proud, ugly, unlearned, tough with a stubborn faith and indomitable human spirit that only fret kills. Ironically, it is the esteemed doctor - whose creative intellect fails to reconcile faith and purpose with the reality of human agony in this physical and sexual paradise - who kills himself. Certainly, in this novel, you see a frightening side to the sun, sea and paradise of this tropical island; but you also find that its true wealth is its people who in the face of such a frighteningly agonising reality of sufferation do much more than merely survive - they lead happy, meaningful, content and spiritually rich lives.
The novel also allows you to travel across the island from the most western locale of Sav-la-mar (Westmoreland) to Port Antonio, the elite Mona and the seductive Junction, St. Mary.
Well enough for one day, more anon.
S.S.
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