Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bolivia: Without a Woman; Without a Point

Senza Una Donna.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiUn8RwpcfY

Without A Woman. No more pain and no more sorrow. I have a friend eager to begin a new relationship that we hop will be the one relationship that lasts and makes life right. I´m cheering from the sidelines. I want everyone to have someone good to love. I could easily love a woman here in Bolivia, could marry her and settle in and have a huge family, calling it a real life at last. Yeah, I could do that. I hope it works for my friend, and I hope it´s working for you, too.

I´m leaving Bolivia tomorrow for a return to Lima, Peru. According to the customs agent I spoke with I can stay indefinitely in Bolivia, ¨a day, a week, a year, it doesn´t matter; but you have to pay 20 bollies per day after the first 90 days.¨ Nice guy. We chatted about arthritis. The last customs agent I spoke with told me if I want to find a wife I should give him my phone number, he knowing a lot of women who would be happy to meet a fellow like me. Time before that I ended up telling jokes to the customs agent till we were both laughing ourselves silly, shaking hands and professing eternal friendship. And the lesbian lady who was so sweet I could have kissed her. Loving my time here makes it seem like I could love a woman here. But I´m leaving. I´ll remain alone.

My ex wife finally got fed up with me after many years of me fooling around, traveling to this or that place while she stayed home and did the needed things of home life. She left, unsurprisingly, surprising me to the ground and leaving me unhappy about it to this day. No more woman, no more pain. So I say. I wish my friend well.

My exwife found a new guy in time, taking her time to do so, checking men carefully for stability and commitment to reality and common decency. She found a good guy. After 15 years of marriage he shot himself to death on Christmas day. For all my faults, at least I´m still alive. Without a woman. Could be worse.
Then again it could be better. I got an email from a friend whose husband is about the luckiest guy I can think of. But it´s not like he won the national lottery. That kind of luck he has is the result of character and the lucky finding of a woman like himself. My friend is good like that. Here´s hoping his new girl is as good a person as he.


Zucchero & Paul Young, ¨Senza Una Donna.¨ 2010.

2 comments:

Michael Crosby said...

Damn Dag, good to hear from you. It's been awhile. Going back to Peru, do you take that dangerous mountain pass again?

BTW, I follow another perpetual traveler, his name is Andy, Hobo Traveler, and he's been back in the US for a few weeks. I get the feeling that he'd rather be in a different part of the world.

Dag said...

Hi, Michael, thanks for the comment.

Yes, I return tomorrow to Peru after a lengthy absence from the work I came here originally to do, i.e. to write a five volume work on the History of Ideas. Tomorrow I go back in the hope of resuming that task. And going back requires further risk-taking on Bolivia´s numerous Death Roads. It´s not exactly fun, the last ride resulting in a near death experience when our bus overshot the road and crashed into the mountain side. It could have been worse, and in fact fatal, if we had slipped the other way. I count myself very lucky. Tomorrow I go for more of the same. In fact, that would be today, moving along to the frontier when I finish writing here.

I am close now to completing the second volume of my latest book, this being a travel account of my time in South America, Andean Walker. It´s funny that your friend is named Andy. I had originally intended to write about a fictional character named Andy, thus a pun on the title. But I encountered a real person named Andy, and he put me off so badly I abandoned the conceit immediately thereafter. I hope my travel tales work out anyway. They continue, assuming I do, tomorrow or so in Peru. Hope to have a more reliable Internet connection there so I can post more regularly.

Till then, my best from Bolivia.