When I read other blogs that have fabulous photos of mountains or prairies or horses or beautiful children I lament the fact that I live in a plain old place without majestic landscapes and my anonymity which allows me to share my children's stories but keeps my photographs limited to the backs of their heads.
Last week my flight home from Detroit was delayed by a couple of hours. (Theoretically due to weather but more likely due to Obama's fundraising visit to NYC.) Just before we finally boarded I overheard the family beside me mention that they were headed from Michigan to Kenya.
I've been to Kenya and I loved it. I loved everything about Africa and I would love to go back frequently. I also can't help talking to strangers so I begged the daughter (approximately 8yo) to smuggle me in her suitcase. We spoke for a bit and then boarded the plane and - wouldn't you know it - I was sitting beside the mother and daughter.
The mother had 24 more travel hours in store so I spoke to the daughter (she's the same age as my oldest son) and told her how much I loved Africa and how much fun she was going to have and how she really had to let go of her fixation on TIME if she was going to enjoy a place where time was more a concept than anything concrete.
At one point during our discussions I asked her "How many oceans have you swum in?"
"None." she answered.
I paused. "None?" I asked. "None," her mom told me. And it turns out that on their trip to Kenya, they will not be on the coast so the answer will still be none.
For what it's worth, this answer is INCONCEIVABLE to me.
When I was 24 I moved from Boston to San Diego. The only requirement I had was that it was on the ocean. And when I went to Kenya I took a side trip out to the coast so that I could swim in the Indian Ocean.
The more the realization hit me that people don't spend their entire summers at the beach like I did growing up, the more I realized that there were photos I could share with you.
I took this photo a couple of weeks ago for a photo contest. The theme was "Singular" and the focus was supposed to be on something simple.
I hope you like it.
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