I got all wound up last night after reading the article in what used to be Time Magazine by a journalist named Mollie Ball. She enthused at length about the people who saved the Election. They saved it by…well, you know. I must have been enthused with excitement about the unity showed by the AFL-CIO and the US Chamber of Commerce, and all that strange computer stuff. I started typing madly at bedtime, but saved it to this morning for a quick read.

I am glad I did.

There were words in there- in themselves supportive of the process by which the election was saved- that could be misconstrued. Even using the words with innocent purpose can get you swept up in somebody’s search for something. I sighed, made a scribble on the pad to add another Footnote at the site to ensure that everyone knows I have the best of intent for all things.

That left me adrift. Then things changed. For reasons best known to themselves, the able crew of docents and historians who labor on the redoubtable memorial ship USS Midway (CV-41) are looking for a presentation from those who accidentally wound up living on the great gray ship.

I have passed along a couple dozen images that resulted from a search of the combined files of at least five or six computers I have used over the last decade or two. Looking for more turned up some things I had not seen in a long time. I am not aware of any new government policy, but the one at the top of this caught me up. It wasn’t Midway, it was Forrestal (CV-59), and the Wine Dark Sea.

At the time the Berlin Wall was falling and only now do I appreciate the giddiness that goes along with big changes. We were in port Haifa for four days of liberty. I went immediately into the same religious fervor most tourists get. The paving stones in the picture? They are at one of the stations, I forget which one.

The Old City locals say it is the Via Dolarosa. I was prepared to believe it was the actual path of sorrows that Jesus walked, and felt it. The emotion of the place made me giddy. The route goes from Antonia Fortress down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but other than the direction and points ‘A’ through ‘N,’ I can’t really say whether my feet trod the stones upon which Jesus did. The Via was established in the 18th Century by people feeling the same way I was.

The picture at the top is from a different place. Much more impressive than the Old City in stature. It is in the Great Pyramid at Giza. There is an interesting narrow access ramp hacked into the side, fairly steep and a crouch was required to clamber down into the darkness. They say the interior of the big thing was never completed, but Napolean decided to sleep over when he was in Cairo. I agree with his decision. Not giddy. Determined.

I need to shake the feeling I am having in this new year. Looking at the old pictures helps remind me this stuff happened all the time.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com