For me, this voyage was about learning to see in a specialized way

For me, this voyage was about learning to see in a specialized way. I wanted to see beyond sights, into meaning. In the Yucatan, I saw an invisible people, the Mayan, wavering in their precarious present. What a people do with their past is as important as their future vision, but I saw their past only as a shimmery haze floating through time and no dreams for the future in their eyes.

There was also a thread of the natural world carrying my thoughts to a past we, as humans, did not experience. The sea turtles and Manta rays with their ancient histories provided another link to a time so far beyond human memory that only paleontologists and five-year-old, dinosaur-mad kids can imagine it.

This is a short excerpt from “Chapter 2, Central America: The Multifarious Nature of Seeing” in Voice of a Voyage. Think of all the expressions we have about seeing, as in “I see,” meaning I understand and sometimes understand more than has been said! “See what I mean,” “They cannot see the forest for the trees,” “We see eye to eye,” “See a world in a grain of sand.” And you can add your favorites to the list.

See may have come from Old English-Germanic meaning to perceive, understand, experience or it may have Greek and Latin roots meaning to follow, possibly meant as to follow with one’s eyes, but not meant as “Yes, I follow you,” which could also be said as, “Yes, I see.”

A little tangent off into language and meaning—I hope you see my point! If not take a look at the sea turtle at least, as seen looking down from our deck.

I am about to take another interesting journey, but more on that in my next blog.