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So if...

I am reading an autobiographical account of John Cleese titled "So, anyway...".

This led me to pen something in a similar vein albeit focused more on some of the amazing moments in my life than just a chronology of my upbringing as my favorite British comic has attempted in his work.

So if I was to exit the planet as in stop ticking just at this moment as I am blogging away I would admit I had a wonderful life if it was an account of things enjoyed in the credit column, and the pain and suffering in the debit side of the ledger.  It also seems apparent to me that nature trumps man when it comes to move you..

Not in any particular order, to be able to enjoy the following moments is a gift, a matter of chance at times, dumb luck and some hustle and some hard work...

  • Feeding carrot to a kangaroo in some remote region of Australia while wondering what the heck this creature is doing here in the first place, then wondering the same about me

  • Hiking Diamond Head crater on the island of Oahu just as the sun is rising and catching the glimpse of its rays as they pierce up from the Pacific giving the sky a shattering orange hue

  • Going for a gondola ride to see the largest man made bronze sculpture of a sitting Buddha atop an island owned by Hong Kong in their harbor

  • Getting married to a girl when I was barely earning enough to survive on my own then discovering that it was the right decision after a quarter century into the arrangement
  • Grudgingly agreeing to procreate and then raising - more like watching the child raise itself - this wonderful creation who thrills us with amazing attitude and aptitude even during the worst of times
  • Watching an Indian ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas perform live before either of us was too old to understand what was going on
  • Smelling the wet moss in the Ho Rain Forest in the state of Washington
  • Watching nurse sharks swim quietly by while trying to not take in salt water through my snorkel tube as I tried to maintain some composure in the churning waters of the Great Barrier Reef

  • Traveling on the Shinkansen, at 200 mph and watching the eminence of Mount Fuji stick out like a white upside down cone amidst a sea of green fields creating the illusion that we were not moving at all

  • Trying to appreciate Michelangelo's ceiling swinging and painting antics inside the Sistine Chapel while breathing limited oxygen amidst the tourists of the world jostling for a spot on the floor while looking up
  • Flying in a Cessna over the Hudson as dusk fell in the year 2000 and watching the lights come in the old World Trade Twin Towers and the Statue of Liberty torch glow in the distance as we circled her and headed back north
  • Flying in a Robinson copter over the Twelve Apostles (on the Great Ocean Road), which then were a dozen limestone pillars sticking out

  • Paying to climb up (using motorized transport aka the lifts) the Petronas Towers at night to watch the dazzling light show and fountains from atop the tallest twin towers in the world - where one of my fave English actors - Sir Sean Connery dangles in suspense as the sultry Katherine Zeta Jones plays supporting cast in Entrapment.


  • Wonderstruck as a mama Orca and baby broke through the Pacific right in front of our eyes spraying us with salt water shooting out of their nostril atop their head

  • Watching the roar of the Niagara Falls as the river helps Lake Erie empty into Lake Ontario

  • Enjoying hot malasadas (doughy sugary fried pastry) on a muggy morning on Oahu from a Leonard's food truck before heading out to the Arizona Memorial down the road
And finally watching creation and end all in one place... the lava flows of the Big Island..history in the making....stardust to stardust



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