Portugal Update #2

A Pacific Boy Bumps Into the Atlantic

...So here I am born and bred West Coast USA...spent four years aboard a cruiser in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and many seas...and always kind of viewed the Atlantic as a large lake...well except for that pesky iceberg thingy that Leo and Kate bumped into...and those notorious 25 foot seas...but go with me anyway OK...so today over a delicious fish luncheon I watched the crashing Atlantic from about 50 yards away...and let's just say that I have a newfound respect for the "pond" which makes me somewhat glad I was stationed out of San Diego and not Norfolk...

...so at Ericiera Portugal west of Mafra about 45 minutes from Lisbon...my dear friends Joe and Paula (and young Deborah as well!) and Otto and I drove a well-worn Opel...400,000+KM on the odometer...and visited a new restaurant for a traditional Portuguese luncheon...with linguica...bread...shrimp...octopus...and lovely white fish with vegetables...and more bread...and laughter...talking matters of life common to all of us...thank-you friends for the lunch!...

...It was quite an international day with some new Australian friends over pancakes and fruit...now living in Loures Portugal...

...most gracious people are Matt and Kiri and family...and they confirm in me the wonderful nature and friendship of our friends down under...and their talented pet 'roo Abner...quite lovely...check them out at http://www.vanders.org.au/...

...I read the news today, oh boy!...did you see the new Time Magazine cover?...hmmm quite interesting...a special report on the world economy with a cover picture of...(select correct answer below):

A. Vice-President Joe Biden

B. US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

C. Karl Marx, Father of Communist Economic Theory

...So with the running banner beneath saying..."The Return of Poverty"..."The Need for New Ideas"..."Citi's Troubled History"...the answer is (drum roll!)...

(hint: His picture is not only on this week's Time Cover but also on Sgt. Pepper)

...Karl Marx...yeahhh!!!!!...whoooooooo!!!!....boy howddddeeeee!!!!...we need some new ideas!!!..

...So Time encourages us in their special report "What Would Marx Think?"... to ponder some important questions...such as..(actual quotations here)...

"Rethinking Marx: As we work out how to save capitalism, it's worth studying the system's greatest critic"...or how about this one..."If you leave aside the prescriptive parts of Marx's writings, there's a trenchant diagnosis of the problems that are even relevant today"...so you see I had to go look up that tricky word 'trenchant' cause I can't say I have used it in the blog recently...and discovered it synonyms...

incisive
keen
penetrating
perceptive
sensitive

WELL THANK-YOU VERY MUCH TIME MAGAZINE! I AM ALL OVER THIS ONE!

Excuse me now...I need to go change out of my clothes...as I think I must have spilled a warm drink on my trousers!...but no fear...the government shall purchase me a new pair!...it gives a whole new meaning to "bail out!"

Greetings from Lisbon!

Where's Waldo? Or Randy?

Bon dia from the long-lost blogger...who has fallen off the face of the earth for the past month...well, not really, but maybe just plain lazy when it comes to blogging...but he has returned with a greeting from Lisboa/Lisbon Portugal...ancestral home of my grandparents...well, at least on the Portuguese side since it would be rather difficult for the maternal Irish side to come from the home of linguica and vinho verde...not that Iwould really know what the latter is...

...but nonetheless I find myself overlooking the town of Loures about 10 minutes north of Lisbon this rainy Saturday...hanging with my dear friend Otto Ekk and enjoying their beautiful home with a great view of an old convent (now a museum) and a new shopping center and surrounding apartment buildings interspersed among ancient agricultural plots...having traveled here on Wednesday...well really Thursday by the time we arrived at 4pm Portugal time on Thursday with a moderate case of jet lag...this now being my fourth trip here in the past five years it is good to reconnect with old friends and to see what the churches and groups are up to these days...and to study and think about new models of community and ideas that are developing in Western Europe...

...yet the big big big news here is that Americans are back on the "A-List" of Europeans these days...all thanks to Mr. President Barack Obama...whom these folks just cannot seem to get enough of...

...This guy is some sort of crazy superhero-messiah-handsome-charming-Euro-magnificent-man...and I thought he was only a President!...Sheesh!!!...silly dumb American that I am...and all the way here and in the airports and on shirts and television and newspapers and billboards and...well, you get the point...BARACK ROCKS!!!...and according to the German newspaper I spied MICHELLE ROCKS!!!...but not only that she is very very sexy...oolala!!!...

...but it is really fun to be back in the good graces of our European friends and brothers and sisters again...and I am comforted to know that he is the answer to all the world's problems now...and it does give me some insight to the view people hold of politicians sometimes...well at least politicians other than your own country's....and how much we really want our leaders to lead...and how people discern leadership and hope and change and more hope and more change and how we are really hopeful about hope and just hoping beyond hope that hopefully hope leaves us now hopeful and...well, you get the idea of what is up in Europe...

...so all we can say is that we need to hope for the best...

...but as for me and my view from Portugal...specifically above a picture of the lovely Tagus River flowing through my family's home town of Porto...and surrounding area...it is a short and sweet trip...and always good to come back...just wishing I had the language skills to converse although fortunately many people here speak English...but it does help me understand better why I am (and my family members as well) are the way we are...because really I was running out of explanations...yet there is a rhythm and poetry to Portugal that is at once confusing and reassuring...that some things really do never change and yet they are always changing...and a life of both sadness and joy wrapped up into one...that is hard to explain but wonderful to experience and consider...so I enjoy Portugal a great deal especially with so many nice people to share a coffee and pastry with...or whom open their homes for a meal with us...very nice...obrigado...

WHAT TO MAKE OF WALL STREET?!? YOWZZA!

...Just when you think it is safe to go back in the water...comes the big ol' great white shark to tear your limbs off...time to put it all...or whatever is left of all...in a suitcase and bury it in the yard or stuff it under the bed...so I am about out of advice dispensing on this one...but what puzzles me is that while the numbers (you know--the numbers, whatever they are) look bad they don't seem to be nearly as bad as we all feel...and it just seems like all confidence is gone in buying, building or spending on anything...and it is global and not just back in the USA...especially for the Brits (GOD SAVE THE QUEEN 'CAUSE THE POUND SURE AIN'T GOING TO DO IT!)...so where does this leave us?

...for the moment I am just going to have to place my trust in God...and wait a few quarters...glad that I am not retiring soon...because if I did I would be practicing my little speech from the only two companies that are doing anything right these days...since we know that GE, Pfizer, Microsoft, Disney, and all the rest are just worthless anymore...so...hang on...let me clear my throat...mmmm....ahhhhhh...OK how does this sound?

"GOOD MORNING--WELCOME TO WAL-MART!" or "WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT?"

...the problem for me is that them darn little paper hats...supposedly 'one size fits all'...just don't sit well on my huge head...so I need to find something else to do...

BUT WAIT! I KNOW THE ANSWER!

GO OBAMA! GO OBAMA! GO OBAMA! NEXT STOP PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD!