I could not do it without them, that is for sure. I've always been a black sheep, never settling into a career position that made me into a millionaire.
So, it is with this blog I honor them for dragging me along in tow, smiling from earbone to earbone, waiting to board a plane bound for Detroit, then Rome! I will open doors, carry luggage, drive small foreign cars around sharp cliffs and coastlines, retrieve bottles of wine and band-aids for blisters at the nearest pharmacies – whatever I can do to help make myself useful and show gratitude for being once again offered a trip that will allow me to experience yet another country, another culture, another era in the world's history. I'm literally paying half of what I would have to normally pay to do such a trip.
Having said all that, I am devouring survival guides for Italy, and the one short phrase that keeps coming up is: Beware of the gypsies.
In one part of my brain, probably the frontal lobe, I take offense to that. I've always been regarded as a gypsy of sorts, traveling from one place to another. I have a much happier and soulful regard for the term gypsy obviously, as the guidebooks list them as pickpockets, thieves, con artists and eaters of small, unattended babies. In my mind, gypsies are spiritual, life-loving peoples who dance in the rain, share what they have with others and travel as often as they can, both physically and mentally. I see gypsies as those who care more for their integrity and know that "all that glitters is not gold."
So, I would like to give a shout out to all those guidebooks and websites that tout the evil-minded baby-eaters, these peoples are not gypsies, but foreign thieves and criminals who would rather take your hard-earned money or valuables as a means of their survival so they do not have to earn it themselves.
They are not worthy of the proud title of gypsy. They are not worthy.
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