Staring at the wall

It’s Sunday morning.  Traditionally a time for leisure and thoughtful repose.  Thankfully, in spite of having gone to bed late last night, I awoke before nine o’clock this morning.  Immediately I attacked a technical computer problem which is what kept me going until after midnight. I got it working in part, then abandonded the ambition in the interest of preserving my sanity and to acknowledge the lack of imperative.  Some things really don’t matter.

While sitting at table last evening, enjoying another of Denis’ superlative culinary creations, I was taken by the portraits hanging on the wall directly opposite. Oddly their appearance is far more obscure than what the photograph indicates. In fact most of the paintings and prints throughout the spacious three-bedroom apartment tend to the enigmatic. It is nontheless a fitting theme for Hilton Head Island and for this grey day in particular.  My first memory of the island was predominantly hazy and impenetrable because we arrived on the island on a Christmas Eve during a snow squall. Then as now the opagueness did not diminish my pleasure. I have forever harboured that recollection. Even on a bright day here the sea blends with the sandy beach, the distant horizon and the vast dome above. The image is more of melding than contrast.

Judging by the filters and edits I apply to many of my photographs it would seem that I prefer obscurity to clarity which of course is preposterous on many levels but otherwise from certain undeniable perspectives reasonable to assume. I am reluctant to advance an unqualified adherence to clarity because I recognize how often I disguise what I find to be unpleasant or vulgar. The dim is not a conscience attempt to reduce intellectual honesty or logic; rather it is the preservation of a state of moderate tranquillity. Removing oneself from a problem is often as sufficient a resolution as confronting it and engaging in attempted defeat or victory by whatever means.

But where am I headed with this?  Last evening we did a peculiar thing.  We decided to cancel a 5-day beachfront condo stay following our removal from South Beach Club (where we are now).  Our reasoning was that this place is a hard act to follow. It isn’t often that we encounter a place or an experience which is perfectly suited.  Most locations have required at least some accommodation or hesitant acceptance.  This venue on the other hand is ideally agreeable.  How’s that for a superlative!

It may be that we have other aspirations on the horizon which have diluted the proposed 5-day venture. I just felt that after this it would be downhill.  Plus we always prolong our return home by taking three overnight stops.  The moderate rate ensures we have time to enjoy the scenery and then an unobstructed late afternoon at the hotel, possibly with a swim, followed by a lingering evening meal. It is a reminder that we haven’t any hurry whatever we do, something often overlooked by those who have spent a career getting things done.