Anywhere might be interesting

I heard Mary, a barista at the coffee shop, once say what I think that I have said myself, once or twice before. She thinks that travelling to almost anywhere in the world might be interesting for a while. Paris was mentioned. Scotland or Spain. But here is the puzzle I would like to pose.

I find that the alley between New Hampshire and Rhode Island Streets, walking from 14^th and not farther than 13^th,  to be interesting – though my mind often wanders well ahead of my feet as I pass through it. And I haven’t sat on every bench in South Park, either. But I have met a quaint older fellow in that very picturesque park who speaks English as well as me, but he reads Goethe and Balzac in the German and the French. He can quote from out of his memory old dead poets like Wordsworth with a glint in his eye.

Now I think that I understand wanting to see the Great Wall of China or the Mediterranean Sea off the seacoast of Greece. But why do we so seldom look for what is interesting in places where you could walk to so easily without a spending a dime? Where in the world, indeed?

Going one place does not preclude the other, of course, but what – or where - do we so easily overlook and why? I could just stroll around and around my house where I live, but somehow I often end up two miles later at Aimee’s to chat with the locals and to try not to act like a tourist. And walking over the river and back sometimes surely suit’s me better than staying in my backyard. I have seen seagulls flying over the Kaw and herons and eagles. There’s a book store not unlike one in Manhattan, Kansas, where I can manage to pass a little pleasant time not finding very much in particular. They also sell postcards if you want to let your friends know what a fine time you are having. And of course I often watch unlikely people doing quite interesting things on the sidewalks. Not always that interesting, of course. But that might be true in Bangkok, too.

I really thought that Omaha was nice when I was there. I’ve actually been there twice. The bridge over the Missouri is something to see. But the wind-turned sculpture by City Hall in Lawrence still catches my eye. And, yes, I must still concede that that Golden Gate is something more than steel and orange paint.

I had enough of Ottawa for a half-day or so, but the afternoon really wasn’t a waste of my time. We picked up a souvenir in a quaint antique shop. And my point, if you can find one when you see me dipping my finger in the fountain in South Park, is that you can be sure that I think that Mary was generally right:  Almost anywhere in the world might be interesting to travel to for a while.

Good riddles often have no good answers; the obvious answer is usually wrong. This one gives me something to think about when I watch the sunset, sitting by a little garden pond next to the brick patio laid by this clever fellow a few years ago, or so he told me. He looked as if he was probably going nowhere. Or I can ponder the possibilities when I wake up from a nap in my own bed, the blue sky out my window and the cat lapping at a bowl not on Waikiki beach.

I think that I could show you something interesting, if you wanted to travel a very short distance just to see something you possibly never saw before. I can’t promise you’ll find the trash cans there as compelling as the ones in Iceland, but I’ll give you your money back if you’re not satisfied and I’ll buy you something to drink. There’s another fountain next to the Gazebo that they turn on in the spring. It’s not Autumn in New England, but the fountain is still a little quaint - the water comes from the river, though they clean it up somehow. It’s safe enough that  you can drink the water and not get Montezuma’s Revenge. You do have bend over and push a button by hand.

And you might not believe me if I tell you this coincidental fact both amazing and true: the Roosevelt fountain in South Park was first installed near this spot for horses and it’s mostly true what I say: you can lead world travelers to water, but you can’t make them think.

Tolkien said it better: All that glitters is not gold, all they that wander are not lost.

I think that I’ll go take a walk. I know this quaint, interesting, out of the way place and a woman named Mary that I would definitely cross the street for and with. But I won’t meet her in Timbuctoo. It’s not that she is not interesting enough, it’s just that it’s too damn far to walk.