5/23

During the middle ages, Jerusalem was considered the center of the world by western monarchs and the Pope. Multiple crusades, sometimes won and sometimes lost the city fighting another ancient civilization.

How many countless people died for the symbols of a city in the Middle East… probably just as many going back to the days of the Greeks versus the Trojans in that more ancient war.

Today I look east over the ocean from the top of a bridge and know that beyond the horizon lies the city of Jerusalem some 5 or 6 thousand miles away. I realize that it sits closer than Seattle where I will end my ride. It’s hard to fathom the distances yet to come…

I look to my west and see thousands of acres of salt marsh

guarded by giant sentinel trees who warn me that I am at civilization’s end.

I stop to look at early spring flowers along the road, the only dry patch of earth in this wetland wilderness.

I stop to enjoy the cool ocean breeze, the fresh smells, the warm sun, and the isolation that abounds. I look right again to that Holy Land .

Angel and Flossie appear

and look East too then turn to me smiling.

“That was never the Center of the World… you have found it here”.

I look again at that Beauty before me and suddenly my companions are gone.

I board the ferry to the outer islands leaving Jerusalem behind .