Meeting interesting folks….or the other upside to cruising

Recently, we had some very good friends who visited from up North. They arrived with a car, which is always an added bonus for us, since it expands our area of operations during any visit. This time, we made an overnight trip to Key West. Kim and I had a Hotels.com credit we had been struggling with how to use since it was from her high dollar travel for work days, and was worth over $200. We knew we’d probably just end up wasting most of it staying somewhere cheap or it would expire, but this KW trip was perfect timing. We stayed at the Southwinds Motel,

( http://www.keywestsouthwinds.com/ )

which, by Key West standards, was an inexpensive motel ($269) but was still very, very nice. Plus, it was only a block from Duval Street, but far enough south to be away from the core craziness.

Kim and Shari in Key Weird….haha

While we were roaming the streets we encountered a suitcase on a stand just outside of the Margaritaville Cafe. No one seemed to be attending it. It had a few interesting looking leather bound books inside with prices on them. As we stood there pondering the purpose or detect the presence of an honor box we were approached by a man who was the author. His name was Brett Dean McGibbon. He only had a few books left at this stage of the night and I bought a copy of “The Fisherman and The Mermaid”. Brett McGibbon writes, prints and binds these books on his boat there in Key West. The books smell like a Wilson’s Leather store, the kind you used to see in the mall. As it turns out he, at least initially, bound his books with jackets he bought from a Goodwill or other clothing donation store. Like so many things you find like this, I bought it as a simple novelty, but was very pleasantly surprised when I sat down one day with a cup of coffee to read a few pages. I finished it in a couple of hours after reading and re-reading sections I enjoyed. I have read it twice since. This particular book is a mix of journal and a fanciful event, (which may or may not have been based on a near death experience) that represents a turning point in his life. He is on Facebook under Different Fish Publishing and has links to his online store. I look forward to reading another one of his more lengthy books soon and I highly recommend picking up one for a read.

One interesting thing we got to see in Key Largo was a Buddhist Mandala ceremony. Some of the Monks from Tibet travel the world once a year and in each place they visit, they assemble a sand Mandala, which in these particular ceremonies, is a representation of each of the worlds religions. During the assembly of the mandala from individual grains of colored sand, they meditate in an effort to imbue the mandala with positive energy. At the end of their visit, they conduct a ceremony where they blend the sand together in a display of impermanence (a core teaching of Buddhism). They distribute some of the sand to the attendees and later disperse the remaining sand into a nearby body of water in an effort to spread the blessings and harmony generated by their assembly of the Mandala to the world.