Wolfgang - Circular Quay, Sydney
At about 3pm today I had the pleasure of meeting a tourist from Germany, in Starbuck's on Sydney Harbour. It isn't really circular but that's another story.
This story, just a brief one, is to acknowledge a new friend, one whom I may never see again, simply because that is the nature of space and time and other global factors beyond our control. While I was a three-hour drive from home, Wolfgang is world traveler and half-a-world away from his most familiar surroundings and his family. He is also a keeper of journal. Ahhh, a man after my own heart, I thought as I glimpsed him writing while seated alone at a small table lit by an overcast Aussie sky, looking out onto the concourse at Circular Quay.
He graciously welcomed me as I invited myself to the table and sunk back into the 44-gallon lounge seats. We talked about his journal and his life, of 'back home' and more, but only ever so briefly in just 40 minutes. We discussed the importance of good relationships, of those beloved by us but no longer here with us, of tragedy and love, of bubbles and the union of two souls, of hanging-on for the sake of those we love, of kids and family, of what happens next August after he returns to that familiar front door, and of not being a slave to a job.
At a cursory level we had a pick and a poke at traveling across Africa, Mauritius, mathematical formulae and harmony, symmetry and chaos, and other 'light' topics obviously so good for conversation anytime -- try them sometime.
We also spoke about our writing: like how to get what we feel onto the paper; different ways of expression; poetry and prose. I can't read German (except for the word, "Cappuccino", which is universal I suppose), but his travel journal that he showed me was so neatly written. It was a beautiful volume, the second of two covering his journey thus far, the first he had already posted home. They are two, of many I am sure, some family treasures in the making.
Wolfgang is a gentleman and I am honoured to have met him. I only wish we had more time to talk and think about life and the many, many questions that arise.
Thank you, new friend, you have enriched my life. I will be thinking of you and I pray for your safe return to the family you love.
Peter
This story, just a brief one, is to acknowledge a new friend, one whom I may never see again, simply because that is the nature of space and time and other global factors beyond our control. While I was a three-hour drive from home, Wolfgang is world traveler and half-a-world away from his most familiar surroundings and his family. He is also a keeper of journal. Ahhh, a man after my own heart, I thought as I glimpsed him writing while seated alone at a small table lit by an overcast Aussie sky, looking out onto the concourse at Circular Quay.
He graciously welcomed me as I invited myself to the table and sunk back into the 44-gallon lounge seats. We talked about his journal and his life, of 'back home' and more, but only ever so briefly in just 40 minutes. We discussed the importance of good relationships, of those beloved by us but no longer here with us, of tragedy and love, of bubbles and the union of two souls, of hanging-on for the sake of those we love, of kids and family, of what happens next August after he returns to that familiar front door, and of not being a slave to a job.
At a cursory level we had a pick and a poke at traveling across Africa, Mauritius, mathematical formulae and harmony, symmetry and chaos, and other 'light' topics obviously so good for conversation anytime -- try them sometime.
We also spoke about our writing: like how to get what we feel onto the paper; different ways of expression; poetry and prose. I can't read German (except for the word, "Cappuccino", which is universal I suppose), but his travel journal that he showed me was so neatly written. It was a beautiful volume, the second of two covering his journey thus far, the first he had already posted home. They are two, of many I am sure, some family treasures in the making.
Wolfgang is a gentleman and I am honoured to have met him. I only wish we had more time to talk and think about life and the many, many questions that arise.
Thank you, new friend, you have enriched my life. I will be thinking of you and I pray for your safe return to the family you love.
Peter
2 Comments:
This isn't really a comment about your work, although I like it a lot from what I have read, what I am curious about is your template. You seem to have your posts broken down into catagories on the right hand nav, are those automatically updated? Like can you give a post some form of tag or meta data that says it belongs to a certain catagory and then it automatically gets updated? If so I would really apprecaite info on how you did this, gcpeart@evermeet.org, and if you do it by hand, cudos for the hard work, it looks awesome!
Thanks Geoffrey,
It is all done manually, in fact, just did it two days ago. Didn't take long, and won't take much to keep it up as the hard word is done. I suppose it could be done automatically but I don't know how.
Peter
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