November 11, 2015, Phoenix- I spent a goodly part of the day here, in a dental hygienist’s chair, getting a sketchy, but hardy, tooth lasered and shored-up.  As it happened, I was there during the 11th Minute of the 11th Hour, on the 11th Day of the Eleventh Month.  This is Armistice Day, called Veterans Day in the U.S. and Canada.  I was maintaining an armistice with my tooth, and we seem to realize that we need each other.

Seriously, though, I am a veteran- of the Vietnam Conflict.  I went over there in March, 1971, because a high school friend, snarky, energetic and self-confident though he was, had died over there.  I went over there because one of the most honest men I’ve ever known got shot through the throat, and lived to regain his voice.  I went over there because the first twenty years of my life had passed, in the words of a fellow soldier who had known nothing but constant indignity most of his life, “without a single hard day”.

I went to Vietnam to find the truth.  I found a corrupt regime, paying lip service to the American ideals, for which we were fighting and dying.  I found people who lived far differently from the way I had been raised, nonetheless telling me of their hopes and dreams for the future, and realizing they were not much different from mine.  I found that the human race makes the world a neighbourhood.

Veterans come home from war.  Some are welcomed.  Some are shunned.  Some neither welcome nor shun themselves; they just drift.  I see all three types on the streets, of any given town.  In Prescott, where I now live, we will enjoy a Midwestern variation of Paprika Chicken, served over rice.  That is of Hungarian origin, but is listed as an “Ohio specialty”.  Any veteran who wants, may partake of this, at our American Legion Post.  Then again, there are seven or eight establishments offering free food of one sort or another, to Veterans, during the course of the day.

I’ve been lucky.  My PTSD was minimal.  Veterans who have more severe cases, need all our support and consideration.  These are my free-flowing thoughts on Veterans’ Day, 2015.

Three comments made by readers of my post “Breathe in Bliss”, as well as my responses to them, were removed without my knowledge. I would like to make sure this is not the beginning of censorship.

July 14, 2015-   Watching from a distance,

I see a beloved friend squirming, quite askance.

She witnesses, in agony, the movement of one close to her

As the Light beckons, and draws ever closer.

Change is a constant, it’s said

Yet, such is shattering, when the change means

Dead.

June 6, 2015, Princess Royal Island, BC- The ferry rocked us gently to sleep on the first night.  The second night, I decided to take my shower at night, around 11 P.M.  When I got back, a shift in the wind had brought rain onto the Solarium deck- and onto my left-hand neighbour’s cot.  So, she ended up in the closed, but warm and dry snack bar area, for the rest of the night.  My area, and her husband’s, remained dry.

This was the sole awful experience that seemed to have occurred on this leg of the trip.  The food was standard, but decently prepared.  There was rain, of course, throughout both days, but this is the upper northwest- and besides, it had been sunny up here for almost three weeks, even as it was raining and snowing in Arizona- and the rather paltry topsoil of the northwest coast was drying out.  So the rain is a blessing for the area’s people, and a minor inconvenience to us travelers.

Today would have been our thirty-third wedding anniversary.  Penny and I had sometimes spoken of heading up this way.  Neah Bay and Port Angeles, both of which I visited in 2012, Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii and southeast Alaska were among the places in which we wanted to spend time.  My realization of these, going solo, is. like anything else worth doing, incremental.

My journeys need to result in heart connections and in the filtering out of my own barriers to growth.  These are sometimes things I can do alone, but other times are things that need to be pointed out to me by others- sometimes by friends and other times by less amiable people.  So far, this sojourn, even in tight quarters, with several rather surly people, has been peaceful.  I have made several friends, from among the passengers, and at least one crew member, who I helped bail out of what might have been a scalding hot mishap.

The mist-shrouded coast of Vancouver Island, and the smaller realms which bound the Canadian segment of the Inside Passage, were our guides for nearly two days.  Among them is Princess Royal Island, one of the homes of the Kermode, or Spirit, Bear- a white or blond Black Bear. Between 10-20% of all Black Bears are Kermodes. We did not see any Kermodes on this trip, but there is always my return trip, June 17-19.

We did see occasional humpback whales, dolphins and eagles, along this route.  Most of the time, though, it was the islands themselves which made the time interesting. So, from among the two-hundred or so photos I took yesterday afternoon and  today, here are some of the highlights.

Meet the MV/Columbia, our home for the next two days.

A look back at Fairhaven, the old port that was annexed by Bellingham.

Mount Baker bids us farewell.

Our ship’s wake lasts several hundred yards.

My space, among the teeming masses.

We passed through many ends, coves and fishing villages.

Most other vessels were fishing-oriented.  This Holland America Ocean Liner was the only cruise vessel we saw, en route, whilst passing through Queen Charlotte Sound.

British Columbia is blessed with seemingly endless coastal forests.

Majestic bald eagles abound in B.C. and in Alaska.  This fellow had taken up residence, near a fisherman’s homestead.

Coastal tribespeople extend a cautious welcome. Trust must always be earned, over time.

The majestic Coast Ranges are a major reason why there is no direct highway between Vancouver and Prince Rupert.

Timber, along with fish, is an economic mainstay of the far Pacific Northwest.  Both must be made sustainable.

A river runs through Princess Royal Island, one of the two largest in the northern part of BC’s Inland Passage.

It is here that Kermode Black Bears are most likely to be spotted.  None was visible here, when we passed by.

The cleavage left by retreating glaciers resulted in magnificent scenery, but shallow topsoil.  The forests find a way to thrive.

So, I was able to mark yet another anniversary in a way which Penny would have loved.