Oh Venice. In the blur of too many projects and deadlines and barely making it on the plane, I suddenly opened my eyes in this labyrinth of stone and pink and glimmering light, all floating/sinking in the Adriatic Sea. I had not expected to be so captivated by this floating, slowly sinking city. I am a bit delayed in my posting, but I cannot resist sharing more of Venice…
Venice was sitting down at a café and looking up from your coffee to realize that, across from you, sits the most enchanting girl in a pink dress. Then, she smiles directly into your eyes and you fall into a conversation that you do not want to end. As you talk, you realize that this girl is, in fact, nearly 100 years old, but the beauty of her spirit radiates so strongly that you didn’t notice her wrinkles and age and saw only this shimmering pink core of her. Venice is an ever-changing magic of light and beauty and decay and art.
Wandering through the maze of Venice’s narrow corridors, with a constant crossing of canals, I could not keep my usually strong sense of direction. Instead, I happily turned myself over to this labyrinth. They say that the reason to wind through a labyrinth is to walk yourself into alignment. You take each twisting step in order to be present right where you are. All who wander are not lost. This was Venice for me.
“The quality of Venice that accomplishes what religion so often cannot is that Venice has made peace with the waters. It is not merely pleasant that the sea flows through, grasping the city like tendrils of vine, and, depending upon the light, making alleys and avenues of emerald and sapphire, it is a brave acceptance of dissolution and an unflinching settlement with death. Though in Venice you may sit in courtyards of stone, and your heels may click up marble stairs, you cannot move without riding upon or crossing the waters that someday will carry you in dissolution to the sea.”
― Mark Helprin, The Pacific and Other Stories
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