…fly with me

For the last two months of Freeport High School’s school year, I was a long-term substitute teacher. That meant full-time teaching plus my work for Bow Street, which made me a busy, quiet bee. Despite the lack of sleep or really, just down-time, I was quite happy, for I attended that high school myself, and so I was a Freeport Falcon again, perched at the blackboard this time, and the copy room and the teacher’s lounge, instead of at those small begummed plywood desks.

And even though I have been somewhat steady in this small town, I’ve done a fair bit of traveling. Three short weeks ago I completed the Trek Across Maine, a 180 mile bike ride from the mountains to the sea in three short days. It was gorgeous, intensely. I watched suns rise, pavement pass and lakes, trees, rock, mountains, rivers, towns, dams, mills spring out of the landscape. The weather was only what we could have wanted and the thrill and challenge of the ride was something to think about and be proud of tackling.  

And three short months prior I flew to the mid-west for a wedding, and some other reconnections. The mid-west, where you trade open watery breezes for sweet people and open waterless views. I found myself in familiar territory, surrounded by faces I’ve seen before and places I’ve roamed. The NW Arkansas—SW Missouri region is another home of mine from my days working at Camp Barnabas.

And so I’ve noticed how this blog remains with function even though I am no longer with Arabs. It has morphed into a travel blog, perhaps; the reveries of a peregrinator.

Ah, that little gem I’ve found and resonate with…

per·e·gri·nate |ˈperigrəˌnāt| verb archaic or humorous

ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Latin peregrinat - ‘traveled abroad,’ from peregrinus ‘foreign, traveling.’

travel or wander around from place to place.

DERIVATIVES

peregrination |ˌperigrəˈnā sh ən| |ˈpɛrəgrəˈneɪʃən| noun

peregrinator |-ˌnātər| |ˈpɛrəgrəˈneɪdər| noun

Yes! Travel or wander around from place to place. That is something I love to do, something I am, and something for which the peregrine falcon, interestingly enough, gets his name. The peregrine falcon is known for being one of the fastest in all the animal kingdom, small yet fierce, and we at Freeport boast pride in our peregrination (here not correctly meaning “the act of traveling from place to place” but instead creatively used as an adjective meaning “the likeness of Freeport students to the greatness of the peregrine falcon). He is the Freeporter; I am him. And I especially appreciate the humorous connotation, for I find myself chuckling at those insignificant differences that two peoples discover make all the difference, really. And I hope you do as well.

But the story isn’t over—as if the coincidence of my high school’s mascot and my self-identification wasn’t enough—or as if 9 months in Palestine was the end! Oh, no. I dug a little further and found that as languages diverged, Latin’s peregrinus was split. On one hand, the word developed into our modern counterpart; on the other, the first ‘r’ was replaced with an ‘l,’ making something like Italian’s Pellegrino, or Old French’s pelegrin, or Middle English’s pilegrim. Or modern English’s

pilgrim |ˈpilgrəm| noun

a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

Nepal, picture courtesy of my friend, Bonnie

No. Way. No way! In a short week I will be traveling, peregrinating, pilgriming to the Holy Himalayas and the Holy Land. I will be four weeks in Nepal and one in Palestine. I will meet and speak and make eye contact with Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and probably Christians, Jews and Atheists too. I will pass through the Middle Kingdom and the Middle East and be both half-way to Heaven and practically there already.

So follow my peregrinations as I go. I will be a pilgrim again. I will be a traveler, near-wanderer, as I fly around the globe. And you too will spread your winds and soar with, through words and descriptions and stories.

See you in Nepalestine.