There are some scenes in life that simply take your breath away. A new born baby, your daughter in her wedding dress, your son’s smile when he lays eyes on the new guitar you bought him, things like that.
Then there’s incredible scenery. Majestic snow capped mountains, a rainforest at sunrise, or the amazing shades of blue that comprise the waters of The Bahamas. Could you stand there and look at it forever? Do you take 1000 pictures of it just so you won’t forget? Do you make your friends stay there staring at it for just another five minutes, even though they’re all sweating profusely and they’ve run out of water?
Great, now they hate you. But, at least you’ve managed to burn that scene into your memory, and images of it are taking up half of the internal storage on your phone. But is it enough?
For me, here, the answer was no. Welcome to the Columbus Monument on Long Island. Not Long Island, NY. Long Island, Exumas. But you probably already knew that. You can’t see the monument in this picture, because that isn’t what go my attention. It was this scene. It screams BAHAMAS!!! to me. I think it must be the most beautiful tropical place I’ve ever seen. So beautiful, in fact, that when we’re done sailing in 8-10 years and decide to move back to land, I may hire someone to paint this scene on one of my walls.
Is that wrong? People hang pictures on their walls of some of their favorite places. Sometimes those pictures are of places they’ve never even been but hope to get someday.
Call it an accent wall. Call it inspiration. Call it whatever you want. I’m going to call this The Most Beautiful Tropical Place I’ve Ever Seen.
(P.S. Gary Bailey, I’ll hire you to paint this as soon as I buy a land-based place to live.)
April 2021