Category Archives: Digressions

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the holiday season, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that one nation is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No animals or trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

At the risk of getting my family’s hopes up for nothing, I must admit that there really is no place like home. Life is always easier at home. I enjoy living in Spain and in Europe and all that it has to offer. As a matter of fact, when I have the time to sort through my thoughts, I will write about my impressions on how the US is starting to lag behind Europe in many things and is becoming some what antiquated (yet not completely, Europe still has a lot to learn from the US). But, there is something about the climate, the vegetation, and the food of home, where ever that “home” may be, that makes being there special. This was the first trip home since moving to Spain six years ago that I felt that I was not ready to get back to Madrid.

As mentioned in one of my earliest posts, the aesthetics of home are what I dream of in my times of stress. I love the size and shape of the sky, the trees either bare or lush depending on the season. And unlike in Madrid, on the East Coast of the US, there is water everywhere, be it the ocean or rivers, streams, creeks, and ponds. I am content to just drive around taking everything in. Like my brother’s dog, Dixon, I can sit at the window for hours on end and watch the world as if it were squirrels to prey upon. But now I am back to Madrid and back to my life here, at least until my next trip home. 

Trying to change the subject after my past few blogs, here are two great songs by artists with questionable hair. The first video is Sly and the Family Stone before Sly was completely ruined by a combination of drugs and his outfits.

Jimi Hendrix, one of my all time favorites from when I was a kid, is known for his elaborate electric guitar solos. Nevertheless, I am particularly fond of this blues piece he plays on his acoustic guitar.

While in Marrakech, I had a few words from my favorite lines of The English Patient running through my mind constantly like a song I just couldn’t get out of my head:

We die, we die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed … bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers, fears we have hidden in like this wretched cave…

Maybe it was just part of adjusting to a new, unknown place located on the fringes of the “comfort zone” or simply a period of self-reflection ignited after Casablanca. But I was focused on how too often anxiety, in all of its subtle ways, defines the decisions that we make and actions we take. How if we were to analyze the things we do and cease from doing, the things we say and the things we keep to ourselves, how deep down inside our actions and ommissions are predestined by our quiet little fears. Allow me to continue:

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Now that I am back from Marrakech, I am finally able to get back into my favorite Christmas caroles. I kind of lost the spirit when I went to a very non-Christmasy country. But, now that I am back and inshala on my way home for Christmas, I can return to those songs that annoy everyone other than me. Especially after having sung “Winter Wonderland” and “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow” at my company’s Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find good videos of “I’ll be home for Christmas”, “Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas” or “Winter Wonderland”. At least one has both Bing and Frank.