Iceland + new scrapbook pictures
I recently returned from a vacation trip to Iceland and for the next few weeks I'll report on what I learned. My route to Iceland was somewhat circuitous. I began the week before my Iceland trip with a business trip to Bermuda. While the primary purpose of the Bermuda trip was meetings, we had ample time for lunches and dinners with our Bermuda friends. I always overeat on trips and this was no exception to the rule. There's something about trips that makes me abandon my diet and eat like I did when I was a teenager. The Bermudians always bring us to interesting restaurants, often off the beaten track. Tom Moore's, named for the poet, was fun because we got to meet our hosts' son. Another dinner was in a tent in a driving rain. But perhaps our best meal was fish and chips with two of our oldest Bermuda friends.
These friends, now retired, took us on a memorable Bermuda tour several years ago, are wonderfully capable and energetic and continue to live active lives. We were lucky on this trip because they spend the summers away from Bermuda and happened to be available for lunch on the Saturday of our visit. I always learn from them, important lessons in life and optimism and maintaining life-long interests, as well as history and geography. One of this couple is a leading historian of Bermuda and I love to listen to him talk about Bermuda, seeing him bring knowledge and enthusiasm to every topic.
There's something about old friends that's special, no matter how often we see them. There's a comfort level, a trust, a sense of continuity even if, as in this case, we see each other sporadically. The ability to converse without reserve or artifice, the lack of anything to prove, makes it a pleasure to see old friends. We don't have to hide, we don't have to conceal, we don't have to pretend.
The lesson is clear: Make every effort to keep old friends and to keep in touch. It doesn't mean we should ignore the opportunity to make new friends but there's something special about old friends.
7-19-04
[The new scrapbook pictures are from Iceland. I'll explain them next week.]
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