"What is life if not the shadow of a fleeting dream?"
Umberto Eco
Jumping continents this new year to the Old World I am having
deeper experiences as an immigrant and tourist, not quite resident and feeling
my sense of nationality eclipse further as the geo-political arena spasms in a
miasma of insecurity and doubt.
I am asking more seriously the questions about what is needed to
survive...
In a small sense I can relate, ill-prepared, with my numb fingers
and toes I walk in the blustery Copenhagen wind - my winter kit is left in
Spain because to move luggage costs more than the flight. Work stacks in a
distant and untouchable future and I coast on a very slim margin. I think of
the thousands of refugees with their lives in their pockets and small daypacks,
some housed in metal shipping containers in Serbian snows whose whole existence
is still in question as invisible borders and countries unknown weigh in on
their fate. Thankfully as a US citizen, in terms of mobility, I am relatively
untouched so far by travel bans and other fear-driven policies. For now I am
taking advantage of this privilege for I doubt this will be the reality much
longer.
This winter season has been a good excursion into exploring what
is available and engaging experiences with an eye to economy and contrasts.
Selfishly coveting my still useful passport and the $32 flights to hop between
Northern and Southern Europe. Finding rain and rainbows and steep and sharp
limestone, luxury of a $3 bottles of quality Tempranillo and fresh breads while
tenting in the Spanish mud. Then back to driven snow and below zero urban runs,
gourmet meals with small mountains of cast off and rescued organic produce from
food sharing programs etc - baked lettuce with a clementine reduction, rosti
with celery root and Trinidad moruga scorpion peppers from the Netherlands.
Moorish castles and Danish Kastellets contrasted with high rises the shared
horizon... the temperate Mediterranean coast meshed with the frosty-wet Baltic
breezes...
Continued rough translations, migrations of language, currency and
endothermic stresses... Transiting past and current lives, living history
across borders... Finding deeper, unexpected richness and sharpness in this
moment of shared experience.
Here are some of my favorite images/memories from the last few
weeks...
all images ©Bennett Barthelemy 2017
