Stories
The Culture of Peace News Network continued
Missions for the Culture of Peace
Travels with Lindsay in the USA
Vacations with Lindsay in the Caribbean
Vacations with Kiki in Reunion
The geometry of time
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Lindsay and I had established a tradition of vacations in Cuba during the 1980's which was interrupted by the decade in Paris, except for one trip that we took to Cuba during that time. While in Paris we took many weekend trips into the countryside of France and a few longer vacations, including the Red Sea at the southern tip of Israel and a trip to Kenya with snorkeling on the beach and a safari to a game reserve.
On returning to the States in 2001, we started once again taking winter vacations in the Caribbean:
2002 Bonaire
2003 Dominica
2006 Belize
2007 Cayman
2009 Maui (not exactly Caribbean!)
In addition we took a few vacations associated with my culture of peace travels: in the UK in 2003; in Iceland associated with my trip to Holland in 2005; in Egypt with a cruise on the Nile in 2005; in the Canadian Rockies in 2007; and in Switzerland in 2007. And, as described elsewhere, we also took vacations inside the United States which we had not done very much in the past.
Grand Cayman in 2007
Skin-diving became my passion! I spent as much time in the water as possible, diving without a tank, just with my mask and tube and flippers and joining the fish. It was another world! Not as dramatic as the time in Kenya when the dolphins came and surrounded me, talking to me in the other-worldly language, after I had swum beyond the reef and ran the risk of encountering the sharks. But with little dramas every day! Encountering the octopus on the beach in Bonaire. Identifying my 60th species down deep in the beautiful reef at the south end of Dominica. The sharks and rays of Belize. Playing with the schools of squid off the shore in Cayman. Swimming with turtles and listening to whales in Maui.
by the pool in Cayman
For me those vacations were idyllic. Unlike an earlier vacation in Cuba when I wrote Psychology for Peace Activists, I did not take work on these vacations. Lindsay and I seemed truly retired. But I was not ready to retire and eventually it came to the point of divorce when Lindsay sent me the photo of two empty beach chairs with the caption that these were our retirement chairs that I had abandoned.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme