Flossie is Starstruck

2/10/19

Departure Minus 10 weeks.

Gulliver certainly developed a perspective on life…

Could we all be so lucky in our travels.

I am just 10 weeks away from yet another ride, this time from Florida to Maine, with a quick turn at the end to Vermont since I so much enjoy the New England Mountains.

Training is proceeding slowly with the on off cold weather and the winter Crisco

is gradually melting from my waist…but oh so slowly.

Each day I ride through the countryside of Eastern North Carolina and ponder  contemporary events which seem to surround us like a never ending swamp.

I have taken solace in painting, something I have done in the past to force Mindfulness on my soul…an escape into the world of Art where little else matters for a few hours each day. I have begun watercolors, moving away from acrylics, and have found a fascinating new world of shades, hues, and translucency. In addition my eyes have moved  from detail to a broader perspective of the overall image…in doing so I have come to realize yet again the Chains of Size as far as ” Beauty ” is concerned.

I recall that Gulliver discovered the same bindings of size when looking on at the “Charms of Women” in their particular worlds…as best I remember he had a fixation about breasts…so what’s  new…he was a guy…

In the Land of the Lilliputions the women were descrided as having the most perfect skin and “features of femininty”, but in the Land of Giants massive moles protruding from  wrinkly skin of the sides of lumpy mounds caused him to turn away in utter  disgust …Pardon me Dear Female Readers if this offends you but it was afterall Gulliver who recounted this tale and I am just a lowly scribe of the intended message.

As I think to this difference of “Beauty” depending on size I cannot but wonder at my paintings…the small where mistakes are hidden…

and the large with unusual bands of color which seem to make no sense but when viewed from a distance look so real…

So much depends on where one stands…and on how large appears the landscape…

And I think back now to America and the views before us. So many perspectives, large and small to consider…so much in constant motion as the pendulum of time swings back and forth from the left to the right, and back again from the right to the left…

Time spent looking at tiny particulars can be so brutal and ugly yet as I stand back and look at the whole, defects seem to melt away…

I find solace in painting but also know a similar peace awaits me soon as I begin to ride yet again…a time where I will look at my fellow Americans up close, and then again at a distance, where I will surround myself not with the Swamp descibed over and over again by the “Know It Alls”, but by the Beauty of this country seen minute by minute, person by person, day by day, sunrise by sunset, week by week, valley by hill, and month by month, through our Original 13 Colonies.

Yet again will my faith in America be renewed by those who live and toil beside me day in and day out to  make the our Nation Great.

How fortunate that I have been given again a chance to see us as we really are…

One small footnote…I am a little concerned at my riding partners…Angel is off somewhere but will probably show up on time.

Now Flossie, that is another matter. Along my training rides I have met a remarkable artist with talents so different from mine. Unfortunately Flossie has fallen for one of her projects…

For the past few months Angel’s trusty steed has been standing in the same spot eyes fixed to the “Love of Her Life”…any attempt to get her interested in the next ride has fallen on deaf ears…

Angel has yet to be apprised of the Situation…

But fear not, I have a plan…for behind Flossie stands another creation which might just goad her to action…if I can just get her to turn around…

Wish me luck.