Instagrams from the Road

My memory has become a little more fuzzy with each passing year, frankly who’s hasn’t.  However I can still recall being a teenager and receiving postcards from my Grandma and Grandpa Martino who upon retirement set out traveling the world in their early 60’s.   Postcards would arrive from far off exotic destinations including Hawaii, Mexico and Italy.  The funny thing was these postcards would often arrive at our home in Marlton, New Jersey many weeks ‘after’ they had returned home to their little row home in Northeast Philadelphia.

A few years ago, Marie and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary in Hawaii.  I vividly remember hiking a rainforest on Maui when I took a 30 second video clip of Lauren and Sam jumping off the rocks atop the waterfall with the locals.  Sam then sent the clip via her cell phone to her parents vacationing in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.  Approximately 10 minutes later they responded that the transmission was received.   

Technology sure has come a long way since the days of my youth when I received those colorful postcards from foreign lands sent to me from my aging grandparents.

A former friend and his former wife, Marie and I at one point talked about a trip to Europe when our girls were 10 years old.  We made plans to see all these historic and iconic places which have existed for centuries that we had read about in textbooks and seen prominently displayed in the movies.  Upon making these plans, my friend famously announced “You know…..we could instead vacation to Disney, visit Epcot, save a ton of money and knock-out all the countries we just discussed in one afternoon.”  I think we all know folks who are more comfortable living life as ‘homebodies’ viewing the world from their newspapers and television sets versus those of us who share a sense of wanderlust and exploration hoping to view these places in real-time.  Sadly, our girls grew up and we never found the time to act on those plans.

As many of you know, my only daughter, Lauren, is currently studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain.  Her ten week student teaching experience will conclude in three more weeks.  Since early March, Marie and I have been enjoying Instagram photos of her and her fellow two ZTA sisters trekking throughout Europe in real-time.   We’ve been enjoying vivid photos of Lauren and her friends, young and alive, living in the moment as only kids’ in their 20s can do with little or no effort required.

There have been photographs of crowded sidewalk cafes and ancient forts, revered churches and magnificent beaches, picturesque country sides and tranquil harbors.  Faraway places with funny sounding names in a language that is foreign to me.   Part virtual scrapbook and part color travel brochure reminding me of those scenes you would see from a movie in the 50s when they would show a plane suspended over a foreign map flying in a ‘dotted line’ over these exotic destinations occasionally landing only to refuel and then to fly onward to the next location.

My Key West mentor and friend (we just haven’t met yet…) has made a very lucrative and successful career first creating and then signing about the mythical destination of “Margaritaville”.  No doubt, this tropical location of palm trees and endless frozen concoctions cannot be found on any map but I would argue that doesn’t mean it doesn’t really exist!  In fact, it’s just the opposite.  Jimmy has taught me and thousands of like-minded Parrotheads a simple life lesson – If you can dream it, then you can make it real, even if it’s just a “state of mind” reality.

Which brings me to a word in the English language called “place”.

Place is one of those words we sometimes overlook but often carries strong emotional ties to a particular destination as well as ‘point-in-time’ in our life’s journey.  We proudly measure the number of years we’ve lived in a particular community, marking certain milestones experienced with friends and family during our residence there. 

Interestingly, the word place is not only used to describe an exact geographic location where we physically reside, but is also spoken to describe a situation, both physically and emotionally (“higher ground”) where we would like to “reside”.  In “x” number of years……I would like to be at this particular “place” in my career, relationship, marriage, retirement, etc…

Remember folks, the minute you stop dreaming, visualizing and working to get to this place, your particular “place”, the quicker it will cease to exist.

So here I sit behind my computer this Easter morning, unabashedly living vicariously through my daughter’s photos and these roads that she has recently traveled, dreaming of a few more years of continued good health along with having the time and resources (both very important) to visit all of the places I would like to see, experience and photograph while I am still physically able to do so.

My Easter wish for all of you included here today is to one day arrive at your very own (self defined) magical and happy place, either on a map or in your mind, with your loved ones beside you having the time to enjoy the moment of “arriving” at your destination together.

So Lauren, enjoy Dublin today!  We’ll see you in three more weeks……

“Dad”

Experiencing some severe Wanderlust…..for now currently residing in Moorestown, New Jersey

Easter 2014