Adventures in Baja

May first adventure in Baja was in 1985 with Norman, StevO, and Wade. My Grandma and Grandpa had been there a few years before me. Catherine Louee Davidson-Davenport (1912-1999) and William Hartman Davenport (1909-1987).

Even my Mom adventured in Baja. My Mother Catherine Dalene Davenport, my Grandpa William Hartman Davenport, my Great Grand Mother Johnnie Annie Robert Pauline Estelle Frost-Davidson, and my Grandma Catherine Louee Davidson-Davenport.

Mom notes that Grandma was proud of her nice legs. 1948.

Colored Waiting Room

Left to right: My Great-Grand-Father Joseph James Davidson (1885-1938), my Great-Uncle David Davidson (1919-1996), my Great-Grand-Mother Johnnie Annie Robert Pauline Estel Frost-Davidson (1886-1971).

My Great-Grand-Father worked for the railroad and I presume this photo was taken outside the "Colored Waiting Room" of the Russellville, Arkansas train station, circa 1937.

This photo came to me via Great-Uncle David's wife, Dottie Davidson, now 92 years old.

Smack dab in the middle of a Rumi poem(s)

I have a thirsty fish in me
that can never find enough
of what it is thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean!
Break these half-measures,
these small containers.

All this fantasy
and grief.
 ------------------------------------
Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?
Why would you refuse to give
this joy to anyone?

Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups!
They swim the huge fluid freedom.
---------------------------------------
This is how it always is
when I finish a poem.

A great scilence overcomes me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language.

Bucket List – Travel

Italy with Mom and Dad, October 2015. Mass with Francis. Pompeii. Size myself up against David.

Photograph and record whale songs, Baja California Sur, Mexico

The Buddhist Pilgrimage, ideally walking to:

·         Lumbini, Nepal: birthplace of Siddhārtha Gautama

·         Bodh Gaya, India: where Gautama became the Buddha, and where my friend Bablu has a school for untouchables

·         The deer park at Sarnath, India: where Buddha first taught

·         Kusinagara, India: where the Buddha died

Photo safari in Kenya, July 2016

Photocopy Sanskrit texts in Ladakh

Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda

Jane Goodall’s research center at Gombe National Park, Tanzania

The entire south Pacific, but probably Sulawesi first.

A Moment of Clarity

"The last thing I want to be is a domesticated bourgeoisie in a white-picket-fence house with a minivan, wife and 2 point 5 children." - Scott Horton, provoked into a moment of clarity

Isn't it interesting how one person's heaven is another person's hell?

Thoreau is next on my reading list. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."

Leucothea's Scarf

 

Ah poor man, why is the god of earthquakes so dead set against you? Strewing your way with such a crop of troubles! But he can't destroy you, not for all his anger. Just do as I say. You seem no fool to me. Strip off those clothes and leave your craft for the winds to hurl, and swim for it now, you must, strike out with your arms for landfall there, Phaeacian land where destined safety waits. Here, take this scarf, tie it around your waist - it is immortal. Nothing to fear now, neither pain nor death.

Look at that hat!

100% positive feedback on the hat. No comments on the pro camera work.

100% ridicule on the sunblock.