| Cruise Diary, Day 7 -- St. George's Bermuda | for everyone |
4/22/11 12:50 PM
Things that you take for granted. Here in St. George’s Good Friday is a national holiday. Most tours (including ours, as mentioned previously) and shops were closed in this small, less commercialized village. In England both Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays. So much for separation of church and state. Of course, the official title of the Anglican Church is, of course, the Church of England. You need only pay attention to the upcoming royal nuptials (and if your only source of news other than Fox News Channel is the English feed of CNN you really have little choice [motto for this week: “all royal wedding, all the time”]) you can see the church still influences both daily and royal life. But it strikes me as strange, coming from a culture that tries, over the objections of some, if not many, to draw a distinct line and show no clear favoritism of one sect over another.
I know most public schools now manipulate their calendars to take off Good Friday and Easter Monday. Back when Hancock started it, I thought it was to accommodate some of our (very) Catholic administrators and that it was kind of a joke. But really, what did I care? A short break is always welcome (unless, of course, you’re in the home stretch of teaching an AP course). Even the U.S. stock market is closed today, as well. Still, it’s not an official holiday.
I don’t really care what Bermuda or any other country does, either. I noticed numerous religious denominations around the islands (not Catholic, although I’m sure there must be one), so tolerance doesn’t seem to be an issue for them. I’m always okay with “Live and let live.” I have enough trouble with my own decisions to try to interfere with how others make theirs!
On our last cruise the balcony was of marginal value – the Mediterranean is cool, at least in June, although it did make the cabin seem larger. But we’ve used it a lot on this trip, to read, to relax, to just stare off into the horizon like someone in a drug-induced torpor.
I kind of like the roll of the ship and the hum of the engines; I find it relaxing, in the same way I used to curl up in the back seat well of my parent’s car on vacation trips, using the motion and noise to lull me to sleep. Carolyn and I are not on the same page with this preference. She slept much better in port, I at sea. I think I’m going to wake up much more rested the next couple nights as we pitch and roll (really pretty gently, so far) our way to the Bahamas for our last stop.
No comments:
Post a Comment