Goodbye Barcelona

Friday Dec 21

Barcelona airport.    

So last night we read the news that the airport we are planning to fly into in London had the worlds first drone attack.   We didn’t know if we could fly in because it was closed.    

And.   Barcelona is having a general strike due to an independence movement against Spain so we didn’t know if we could even get to the airport.    

Catie says I worry too much.  

I say it’s good to have a person in a traveling duo who does worry.    

We are past security and having a late lunch that includes some remarkably good wine.    

So now we wait to board for our two hour flight to London.  

It was a beautiful and Sunny day as I said goodbye to Barcelona and Spain.   Last night Cate and I had a late dinner and I walked the 3/4

Mile back to my flat without consulting a map - for the first tine.   I felt, if not at home, at peace, as a citizen of the world.   My Spanish held

Up enough for encounters with locals who did not

Speak English.    This morning I had an entire conversation in Spanish with a young policeman about whether the subway was open despite the demonstrations.   That was invigorating.    

I almost think I have nothing profound to say today.   But I am superstitious about saying that.   I suspect only Ricky understands that one.     

So here goes.   

Last year I read a book on the brain.  It talked about how we seek to establish a routine.   That is due — according to this book — the fact that our processing mind, the prefrontal, is the smallest and youngest in terms of anthropology ( think of the small forehead of Neanderthals )

Our oldest and largest part of the brain is the basal or back portion.   We seek to take new events and push them to the back.   

It is why we sometimes take the wrong but familiar freeway exit, because our basal mind is at work.    

As hard and challenging as it is to put myself in a place where my prefrontal is always as work, it seems to be the place where I feel most alive.