…if any of you bloggers know Tibet or have been?

I would love to see the Himalayas. But the Himalayan kingdom that captured my imagination as a teenager was Mustang, the Kingdom of Lo Montang, situated between Nepal and Tibet. I read the account by ** you do not have permission to see this link ** of his explorations in the mid 1960s when the only way in was a two week hike from the Nepali side. The episode that sent a chill up my spine was when he entered a sacred Buddhist cave. He went in out of blazing sunshine and it took him several minutes to get his night vision. Peissel records that as he began to be able to see again, out of the shadows slowly appeared the enormous face of a 40 foot high Buddha!

My understanding is that now entry from the Nepali side is heavily restricted. About ten years ago the Chinese built an eight lane highway from Lhasa to Lo Montang so the mystery is probably long gone. The closest thing I will probably come to experiencing the kind of travel magic that Peissel experienced is to overnight in the Atacama desert under a clear unobstructed sky. The tragic part is that the “clear unobstructed” sky would be available to everyone if we didn’t live in the most ** you do not have permission to see this link **.

Of course the most wonderful part of traveling is the journey itself. (Which is why I prefer a long slow boat ride to a plane. The freighter experience does seem to be the way to go. Much better than a ridiculous cruise.)

I will also be going further North to frequent the aurora borealis. I’ve already traveled with my family to see two total solar eclipses.

Robert in 2026 there will be another total eclipse visible in the far north, including Iceland, which I have visited and definitely want to return to.

** you do not have permission to see this link **

Maybe I’ll see you there! (For those who prefer warmer climes it will also be visible in Portugal and Northern Spain.)

Robert you’ll know when it’s time to pull the final plug of course but I’ve made it known that after the first of the year I’m unavailable. It’s just me but I gotta go.

ps: I realize that Bob Dylan is a wonderful songwriter but what prevents me from truly appreciating him is that I cannot abide his singing voice. Fortunately he has many fine interpreters. My favorite song is Changing of the Guard from 1978. The best cover is from Chris Whitley & Jeff Lang. (As an added bonus you get Jeff Lang’s extraordinary lap slide guitar paying.)

This will show how far gone I am. When I read “the singing nun” I immediately wondered what Sally Field had to do with Dylan? But thinking of that silly old TV show made me flash back on a memory from my seminary days. There was a bookstore about a mile from the seminary so, sans auto, I used to get up on Saturday and walk. I would pass an Ursuline school on the way. (For my fellow non-Catholics the Ursulines are a teaching order for girls.) I’m not sure now but back then they still wore the full cornettes. (Hence, Sally Field.)

One cold wintry day as I walked by I looked through their gate and was stopped in my tracks by the sight of two nuns walking out of their building. Being fully dressed for winter and with the cornettes they looked like black birds with white faces floating across a field of snow. It was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw. I wish I was a painter to try to capture it. I still well up inside when I remember.