InMotion

  Discussed :   seasonal rearrangements, cultural contrasts, a strange big island, mass musical culture, family ghosts, werewolves. Carol and I get in the car with our friend Kristin’s boyfriend’s son’s girlfriend Nadia on Tuesday Feb. 21, 2023.   We are shuttled  50 miles to Portland, and pay Nadia $100.   We h ave the folding bike loaded into the cargo bay. We sit in the plane, get off and soon get on another, try to sleep. We walk off the plane 15 hours later, gathering our stuff and greeting my niece Anna on a bright sunny humid Thursday afternoon in Melbourne. It’s 6 months into the past or the future, and 80 degrees not 40.   Not taking it for granted, I accept this as a journey on a magic carpet, woven from ancient fossils we have taken to calling fuel. Adventure ensues.   We encounter all manner of animals and birds and plants that confirm the alchemy of the carpet.   We notice that the land is enchanted but the people are strangely just like us.   What are they doing here?