Capri and Hawaii

After my afternoon stroll I am relaxing before dinner.  Sitting on the sofa I begin to think about my day yesterday on the Isle of Capri.  It is a truly beautiful place and I begin to think of home.  I recall standing at the very top of the island and looking down at the village of Capri, sprawling around and above the very busy harbor.  I could see Sorrento in the hazy distance.  I moved to the other side of the mountain peak to consider the upper village of Anacapri spread about what appeared to be a mountain plateau.  Those two places looked like the only that would be suitable to make a village.  The remainder of the island was a series of stone plates jutting about in different directions.  I considered the violence which must have occurred, perhaps millions of years ago, to cause the earth's crust to rise up and form this now breathtaking place.

As I was riding the taxi up to Anacapri from the harbor and, hopefully away from the throngs of visitors, I noticed that much of the flora was just like Hawaii.  This must be a sub-tropical climate.  So, I was already thinking about this place and comparing it to home.  While on the top of Capri I began to consider the great difference in the very shapes of the islands.  In Hawaii, there were no such violent eruptions but just the slow, unforgiving flow of hot lava.  Rising from the same earth's crust that exploded here in Europe, over those same millions of years the inexorable flow of lava gradually formed the enormous mountains of which the Hawaiian Islands are comprised.  My revelation, while new to me, was certainly not new.  However, the two quite disparate beauties gave me pause.  It is interesting to, occasionally, consider the greater scope of "things."  I smiled as I recalled that "the miracle is not walking on water, the miracle is walking on earth."

I shall, of course, generally focus my attentions upon the simple vagaries of my pitiful life.  The "mana" of food and drink will continue to intrigue me, as will the eccentricities of the people I encounter.  However, from time to time my mind wanders to greater heights, but, I digress.