Week 1 – Original Prompt

Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad

“These are the people that make life a burthen to the tourist.  Their tongues are never still.  They talk forever and forever….If they would only show you….and then step aside and hold still for ten munutes…I would give a whole world if the human parrot at my side would suddenly perish where he stood and leave me to gaze and ponder and worship.” (135, 36)

 

This passage totally resonated with me.  I can’t take in all the information and stand in awe at the same time.  I also can’t always hear and understand what the guides are saying and often tune them out and go inside my head.  Being rushed from one archeological wonder to the next and information showered on you when you need a real shower is just overwhelming.  Most of the time it takes so much energy tfor me to listen and interpret an accent that I miss the information anyway. 

Armed with a basic synopsis, I could drink in the energy of a place and listen for things that are not put into words.  I could connect with the forest or the ocean or the cathedral that was built in the 1200’s or earlier.  There is an old energy that influences new energy and I cannot connect with that if a parrot is droning on and on and then whisking me away to the next place with its own energy.

I am extremely grateful to be here in Spoleto where I can pace myself and drink it in.  A sponge, when it’s dry, cannot draw up water until it has drawn up water.  Being in Spoleto, perhaps I can draw up water in order to draw up more water.