*** Guest author David ***
An hour past midday in August, sitting on the veranda at Dolcetto at the Conrad Singapore Orchard Hotel. Finally a day off to relax.
It rained right before the sun hit its peak, pealing a few degrees from the cement walkways and tarred roads. The breeze carries much of the moisture away and dries the surface. this eighty-eight-degree day is far more tolerable than all of the last week. Still persistently humid, the air is fresh and renewed.
Though spending a few minutes to record these moments in word and stanza, I have taken in quite the opposite, spending the lazy wet Saturday morning on my quest to reintroduce imagination with classics I enjoyed in my youth.
Now two-thirds of the way through Robert Louis Stevenson's story of young Jim Hawkins and his antagonist Long John Silver, I wonder how it will conclude. Yet I know, as these words have been seen and absorbed into my consciousness before.
I am sure the lush tropical environment of Singapore surroundings has affected the words I am rereading this day in an unusually spiritual way. As I read of Jim's struggle making his way back to the Hispaniola anchored off the shore of Skeleton Island he is observing the sails catch and the release of the wind over and over again. This is a sure sign they are not being attended to.
I feel that very breeze turn to wind again and again while my mind pauses to reenter my bodily presence. The lack of care today has also left my sails untrue and unmanned. Or am I too, in that small craft fashioned by Ben Gunn while he has awaited his rescue marooned on that rarely visited rock?
Thankful for a quiet and peaceful weekend abroad, I shall again return to my reading and find myself on that island with Jim and that fascinating yet wicked Long Jon Silver once more.
***
David is in Singapore. I didn't realize how close Singapore is to the equator. It's tropical. Approaching the 2 week mark, he was told to stay another week.
I'm now less than 48 hours from picking him up at the airport and I am just counting down the minutes until I see his gorgeous face. 2,820 minutes and counting...