As I child, I was fascinated with volcanoes and dinosaurs. They both seemed so massive and impressive – something no one should trifle with. I think children (who often feel helpless) love to think about things that are more powerful than parents or teachers.
I am always shocked at how many times I relearn the same lesson.
As we traveled to Java, we had some time to review a lot of our photo and saw interesting shots that we would like to share.
Yesterday, I espoused the virtues of relaxation and spending time apart to encourage family harmony. I told you it was a great idea and that we benefited meaningfully from our time in Bali. We might have benefited from an additional day there, but we are instead returning to form.
Reinhold Niebuhr authored one of the great prayers/approaches to life:
I should start by saying that we have really terrible internet tonight. We find this confusing given the fact that we are staying in the best place we have experienced on this entire trip. Also, it seems great at some functions (using FaceTime) and hopeless in others (uploading photos). The second point is relevant to your humble narrator, so we may just have the one photo and will add more later. [Note: I have now done so.]
We had a delightful reunion in Ubud on Thursday. We spent time with Mathew Welch and his brilliant wife Patricia. Mathew was a classmate of mine at Harvard Business School, but we have not seen each other since we graduated in 1993.
There are several aspects of our first few days in Bali that I want to document. Last time we traveled, Susie and I converted the blogs into several photo books. We plan to do the same this time around. As a result, there are a few items that we will want to have in the books that might not be as interesting to our readers. This is one of those blogs.
People in Bali are strikingly nice, especially for a tourist community. As a general rule of thumb, the kindness of natives drops as the density of tourists increase. The novelty of seeing someone from a different culture becomes replaced with a tsunami of souvenirs.
