Getting there, it is said, is half the fun. I quite agree. But likewise being there is the other half of it. Being there is more than an interlude. It is not the culminating point of an argument from which all else recoils, fallen from mark. Neither is it a mere step upon the mountainous ascent to the pinnacle. Apparently we’re driven by an inner desire approaching that of hunger to land ourselves on some distant mound or summit where we imagine our native being will be transformed to a caricature of ourselves, free from inflammation and stiffness of joints, sylphlike and youthful, expunged of our nascent obsessions and anxieties. And then we get there and the process recommences. The apogee looms ever higher. Whence cometh the height of perfection!

This  is not to say one shouldn’t welcome or even pine for alternative. But at least when we get there we owe it to ourselves to reign in the ropes and chains by which we are currently hitched, to attach ourselves to the moment before throwing aside the mooring and pushing off for yet another adventure upon the faraway horizon.

I am instinctively drawn to the morning dawn. Whether being nestled on Buttonwood Bay is that imaginary resort is a question not for others but for oneself. A plantation home in the Caribbean or a hut on a turquoise seaside derive their import from oneself.

A child in the pool tells her mommy she’ll meet her at the bottom of the sea. And the child in us reaches for the mountaintop in the sky. And how does one recall the bottom of the sea or the top of the mountain unless one has lingered there, absorbed the tastes and seen the sights.

For my part I shall for the moment confine my perspective to sea level, the azure dome, the glaring hot sun, the waving palm fronds, the arid afternoon breeze that thins the atmosphere and mutes the blur of humanity. Thus assured I am permitted to delve into the constituting ingredients, the singular herbs which capture the muscle of the raw material and transform to a palatable and memorable delight, the acme of design.