Monday, 10 October, 2022 – As I sit here writing on what is sort of Monday night, early Tuesday morning, I think Elias is probably getting up soon and going to Salerno.
As I was searching for things to do in Naples, out of curiosity, I kept running across widely divergent opinions of the city. On Yelp, or TripAdvisor, or any one of the jillion travel blogs, people either seem to love Naples or absolutely hate it. On one hand, they used words like, “gritty” or “rough.” On the other hand, “charming” and “authentic” are words used to describe it. He did not text today or post pictures, so I will be interested to hear what he thought of Naples.
I was talking to Annika tonight about the sort of disappointing weekend she spent visiting a friend in Ohio. She was so excited to go, see a new place, spend time with a friend, and then the visit was just okay. Not terrible, not a disaster, but not nearly as much fun as she had hoped it would be. There were fun moments but there were also frustrating moments. She got back to school and was sad and kind of mad, thinking about all the other ways she could have spent a long weekend away. Of course, it was not the right time to say, “There’s going to be a lot of these experiences in your future. Very often, some things that are good are punctuated by disappointment or frustration. Being happy does not mean you feel happy every day, all day long. In fact, I think the moments of frustration and disappointment help us treasure the moments of undiluted happiness even more.”
Yeah, she was not up to hearing any of that. But I wonder if that is not true for Elias, too. I mean, getting to the train on Tuesday morning, finding a bus or walking to his next Airbnb, doing laundry, fighting a cold are all part of daily life, whether you are on the Amalfi Coast or not. Of course, once he gets to the coast, he has the Tyrrhenian Sea to look out on and that will give him some moments of happiness.
I told Annika that I wish I could fly in, give her a big, long hug, and then spirit away because I know she is okay. She does not really need much more than a decent night’s sleep and a long hug from someone who loves her. She doesn’t need to be, or expect to be, constantly happy but she does sometimes need to be reminded of how constantly, unconditionally, she is loved.
I think when I offered to fly to Rome, Elias knew I was trying to show him how much he is loved. It wasn’t as good as a hug but it was close enough.