I'll be back next winter.

I have a week left in Sardinia. And I don't know if I'm sad to leave. Doesn't really matter. Because I'm learning to take life one day at a time. And to savor each day. No matter where I am. Sardinia. Timbuktu. Minnesota. Every place is nice. That is, if one makes the most of it. By getting a feel for a place. And I certainly got that in Sardinia. I am experiencing Sardinia from a relaxed, easy-going perspective. Moving about freely. Observing. Not worried that I am getting too little. I'm sitting on a stone wall now. In Piazza Roma, the city center in Carbonia. It's 9 in the morning. Bright sunshine. Makes me warm. On an otherwise cool day. I'm casting a long shadow on the piazza. I'm looking across the sprawling piazza. To a city park. The one with a multiple geyser fountain. Turned off for now. But it'll be on in an hour or so. Then shut off at 2 in the afternoon. When the city goes into a siesta mode for a while. Most businesses close at 2. But life springs up again at 4. And the fountain will be on again. I know the ritual. The routine. The timing. The pulse beat in this community. In America, we go pretty much around the clock. Especially during the daytime. We wouldn't dream of closing in mid-afternoon. Or shutting off our fountains. We Americans have to be on the go. All the time. Making money. Profits galore. Our grocery stores stay open all night. In Sardinia, they are closed by 8 or 9. Maybe all this makes the Italians better equipped to cope with life and with the world--wide economic crisis. Because Italians embrace leisure time. Better than we Americans. We see such embracing as laziness. As lost opportunity to make an extra buck. To make the capitalist system thrive. I'm ready to accept the Italian way. It's more sane. More sensible. More comfortable. The way life was meant to be lived. Oh, not every Italian is alike. Anymore than every American being the same. But I see trends. Drifts in both countries. And it's easier for me to be caught up in the slower flow in Sardinia. Which means I'll be back next winter. For a longer stay. --Jim Broede