AROUND THE WORLD IN 23 YEARS~Night Train To Lisbon

My journey continues.

The visit to Portugal was a side trip, a detour, between Thailand and Malaysia that turned into a deep dive into the subconscious. On the flight from NY, I read Pascal Mercier's wonderful novel about life, love, and the search for reality.

I was mesmerized by the philosophical insight expressed by the deceased co-protagonist, Dr. Almeida Prado.

"When I read a newspaper, listen to the radio or overhear what people are saying in the cafe, I often feel aversion, even disgust at the same words written and spoken over and over-at the same expressions, phrases, and metaphors repeated." Pascal Mercier

This book, The Night Train to Lisbon, would not have entered my life had I not been traveling around the world.

Mercier is a literary master, the thoughts expressed in the pages of Dr. Prado's book are sheer genius.

As I absorbed the story, I imagined being Dr. Prado, living in Paris in the 1930s. I'm in my prime, drinking wine in smokey cafes, exchanging the philosophy of life with the literary masters of the time. I was in love, not with a woman, but with a lifestyle

"Ever since this morning, I've been feeling that I'd like to make something different out of my life. That I wasn't to be your Mundus anymore. I have no idea what that new one will be. But I can't put it off anymore. That is, my time is running out and there may not be much more of it left."Pascal Mercier

I arrived in Lisbon on cloud nine, here I was, where it all took place, where Mercier put words to my dream.

This can only happen when you travel when you taste life as a participant, not a voyeur.

I was there to attend a conference, mundane and boring, but my emotions were on that Night Train To Lisbon and my life was about to change.

I wish Mercier had written this book 60 years ago when I was an idealistic student struggling with the question all students ask themselves; "what do I want to be when I grow up?"

Comments

SILENCE IS APPROVAL~Jewish Meme

How often do we learn something awful, clam up, and ignore it, hoping it will go away. It never does, it just gets worse and our silence becomes its enabler. Life is like that, we don't want to get involved. We have enough to worry about and ignorance, after all, is bliss. Wrong, ignorance is acceptance. The easy analogy is governance. We sit in a management meeting or a board of directors where we become aware of something nefarious and keep silent for fear of being disloyal. To speak up takes courage and courage has consequences. When a whistleblower comes forward they are vilified, they become the victim of power and power corrupts. We've seen this in Washington for years, management teams being selected for their weakness rather than their strength. Weakness breeds indecision and silence, strength breeds courage. A new administration always starts with a ray of hope that the management team, aka the cabinet, will be outspoken and advise and consent with courage, no...

CHAOS REVISITED

" a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order." Isn't four years of this enough, seriously? The constant media drumbeat, TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP, dominating the headlines, the news shows, and our conversation. This did not happen by accident, this was a calculated strategy by a certified narcissist. "Narcissism: a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others." The Trump supporters say that "this is just Trump being Trump" that, my friends, is precisely the problem. Now that he's lost the election and his sycophants in Congress have replaced their horns with silence, if not acceptance, wouldn't you think the man would suck it up, acknowledge the inevitable, exhibit a modicum of humility and devise an exit strategy that would highlight his accomplishments not feed his addi...

A TALE OF TWO CITIES~A REIGN OF TERROR

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." Charles Dickens Paris in the 18th Century was in turmoil, it was the reign of terror, the French revolution was raging the atmosphere was chaotic. Washington, DC in the 21st Century is in turmoil, the pandemic is raging and the atmosphere is chaotic. Is this an analogy? Maybe, but we need to fill in a few gaps. Paris in 1789 was suffering from unemployment, hunger, and p...

Search This Blog