A Glimpse West

And I find myself under the glow of Mount Rainier.  "Curiouser and Curiouser," said Alice.  To go around the world, one simply has to keep going in one direction long enough.  Eventually one will end up more or less at the starting point.  So it is with me.

Vienna to Seattle, fifteen hours (who's counting) and into the waiting brotherhood of my circle of Seattle friends.  This was followed by a dash south to Tucson to see the Genetic Envelope and the Maternal Unit.  No closer to the end of the circumnavigation of the globe, I headed back north, stopping in the Sierra of California for some decompression time with friends.  

Back in Seattle, I helped a friend build a deck (What do you think Mr. N?  Was that downplayed enough?).  Why I did this is a mystery yet to be explained.  

The rest of the time is a blur of social gatherings with a final retreat to Hood Canal and good company.  In three days I jump onto the next leg off the journey, heading ever west.  After losing a day crossing the international date line, I will set foot to Bangkok pavement on Thursday.  My One arrives on Friday and we will then, in short order, disappear into eastern Thailand, the quiet of Isaan.  

Carve this.

This has been a disjointed and disorienting month, full of grand reunions with friends and deep pondering over the weirdness of this part of the world.  This is a disjointed blog entry as well, but one has to write about what one knows to be true.  Believes to be true.  Hangs on desperately to what might appear to be true.  

One novel is done and the task of publishing it about to begin.  The next novel is worming its way into my brain, fighting for attention.  I have slept in more strange beds in the last thirty days than I care to remember.  I am repeating the same stories, which is boring and futile, but socially necessary.  Surrounded by friends, I watch the USA slipping further into the theater of the absurd.  It is so very much like watching a slow-motion train wreck playing on a loop of film, over and over.  I simply cannot look away from the madness.  It is analogous to examining an infection on one of my own limbs and having to decide whether or not to lop the thing off to save the body.  Chaos, chaos, accept the chaos.  If the populace is willing to descend into madness, following the Pied Pipers of modern double-speak, I suppose that is one option.  I wish them luck.

Thailand, Thailand, a place to disappear.  I will become an observant traveler once more.  We will celebrate a new life, move forward, move on.  And then we will return to Vienna, Wien, back home.  I believe this trek has become the process of digging up roots and carrying them away for transplantation.  Or not.  Maybe it is just a longer goodbye.  

So, this is it.  I am sorry for your having to tolerate this nonsense.  I have three days to resume, to breathe in, breathe out, write, come back from the bewildering madness that lies so far beyond my control.  There is so much to do, so much to remember, so much to share.