My first day is dwindling. I am sitting next door to my favorite spot because they adjusted their schedule for the coming festa and took today off. Today was spent getting my fono working and seeing those I missed yesterday, and, I took a nap. Age? Jetlag? Dead tired? Si!
I consider myself an average guy, married twice to bright intelligent women that I loved. Old age is no longer around the corner, it's a mirror. Two kids plus Grace's two girls, a slew of grandchilden and a fat white cat I sometimes call "Spot"...average. Yet here I am, waiting for a friend to join me for drinks in the Campo dei Fiori, HOW is that average?We knew so many people here that loved us, so that calling anywhere else home is an insult to them.
Mi dispiace is today's phrase. That is what is said after someone is given the news about Grace. Not everyone speaks English so I asked Sonia to write the situation down in Italian. It helped in explaining, as I had the water works going then. Now too. Next sunday Grace will get her wish and be able to remain even after I leave, though my friends will know how to help my daughters when my time comes.
Mi dispiace is I'm sorry. It is always accompanied with shock, a hug and kisses. This helps explain our love for Campo...a warm, caring, thoughtful group...our adopted Roman family.
I can only wonder if we had come here on our first trip instead of California whether we might have been able to pull it off? We knew where we belonged from the first and as time went by our love simply intensified. She'll love being able to look out from the shadow of Giordano and see our friends.
Perhaps my luck was more than average, that will be today's answer.
Here's a slice of the Campo, the kids are out of school and drifting through. The electric trash trucks are doing their nightly choreographed task. Golden agers with helmets and bikes are on the way out.The peddle taxi just dropped off someone for dinner. The trash attendants in their Armani designed uniforms saunter about looking gorgeous. THIS is LIFE the way it should be, not cooped up in an air-conditioned cement house ignoring everything but the idiot box!
I see Esther so that's it for today...a domani!
This is my on line "Collector's Cabinet". It is non-profit and haphazard at best. I leave it to you to sort through and make sense of.The views are mine. The collection reflects some of my interests. But the material must be credited to the vast internet. Otherwise, I never would have been able to amass such a treasure trove. The purpose of this exercise is entertainment, naturally mine, but even more so yours. So, please let me know if anything strikes a chord with you.
So dad, do Kim and I get a trip to Rome some day? Please, not anytime soon. I look forward to the travel but not for that reason. Make the most of every day, even if that includes a nap.
ReplyDelete“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
ReplyDelete―Ralph Waldo Emerson
Made me think of my friend, Max, who is NOT an average man..not by any definition. Makes me happy to think you there, with Grace. Thinking of you...an smiling.
Tomi