Out to Sea

May 5, 2024

I took this screenshot of my phone this afternoon. It seemed an apt visual metaphor.

Much of this trip . . . more than I care to admit . . . I’ve nervously had my nose in my phone, relying on the little blue dot on Google Maps to tell us where on this big blue dot we are and in which direction we’re pointing. I’ve spun around on Rome and Florence and Locarno street corners trying to figure out which way to turn. I’ve talked Cathy through turnabouts in Switzerland (“we’re coming in at six o’clock; we want to leave at nine o’clock.”). And I’ve feverishly used it to identify the building in front of which we were standing when, if I’d just turned around and looked, the sign above the door would have told me.

It wasn’t until today, as we rode on the ferry from Sorrento to Positano along the Amalfi Coast that it dawned on me that there was nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . that little blue dot could tell me that I didn’t already know.

Amalfi on your right; Tunisia on. your left, Rob. Pretty simple.