favorable circumstances in Guatemala

There was always some talk of the privileged life, but only in hushed tones and with skeptical eyes. Perhaps it was better to believe that it did not exist, but secretly feel that it did, and it would be experienced soon. It's a slippery slope, that privileged life, and a slippery slope is many different things to many different people.

I like to know that it is out there, whether my conception of the Privileged Life is a deserted beach on a South Pacific island, a beer on top of the Capricorn on a warm San Francisco afternoon, or the Good Life that people associate too frequently with the Privileged Life, for the right reasons. Perhaps a 40 of Gallo beer on a Guatemalan lago? And maybe that's what first drew me to try and get a little bit more for my dollar, so to speak.

The progression of these concepts is not quite linear, that is, they did not develop in a rational, chronological order, but rather current circumstances affected interpretation of past experiences to form new interpolations of what had happened and why it had happened. Orwell once said, "Those who control the present control the future. Those who control the future control the past." Strange to think that the past is only an interpretation, and can be shockingly far from the truth.

I digress. The Privilege Life was conceived, in part, on a southbound train in northern Italy and on a section of the John Muir Trail during a two-month period in the Fall of 2002. The events, facts, and opinions had been there all along, but it took an alignment of the stars, and perspectives, to interpret everything in this new way. This changed how I thought about events in the past, circumstances in the present, and the path of the future. You can control the first very well, the second about as well as a child controls his new remote control car, and the third not at all. Some people have a handle on the third, but it's a bit scary to know what tomorrow has in store, and next year.

So just how much control do you have on what is going on? Sometimes events conspire around you, and you are blind to the clever ruse that other people are playing on you. Your plans for a promotion at work, a new car and a third child have evaporated, and you have to revel in helpless state of ignorance. Its refreshing not to have to think about what will happen next. Like a bored child five weeks into the Summer break. The days will not end for a long time, and if anything occurred that changed these halcyonic days, c'est la vie, it wouldn't be a big deal. This is one of the rare times when you're happy that a lack of investment relates to a lack of potential loss.

The following is taken out of notebook entries during that fateful overnight train ride during the summer of 2002.: The Privileged Life figures in with a sage observation that Hunter S. Thompson made after one of his trips... "Our trip was a classic affirmation of everything right and decent and true in the national character. It was a gross physical tribute to the amazing things possible, but only for those with true grit, and we were chock full of that."

I'm drinking Torre a Decima chianti from Nelle Contine di Molino del Piano. I've made it a rule of thumb to always take a bottle of wine on the train with me, but alas, I've no other choice but to kick down 8 Euros for a .375L. I think its poetic - or representative - or appropriate that in this moment in time I'm on a train, somewhere in Southern Italy, drinking wine, writing, listening to digitized music, thinking, planning and plotting and just appreciating the fine state of affairs. It's 10:15 at night here, wherever that is - Lombardia region of Italy - oh here we go Brescia - and I drink cheap - yet expensive - wine in the dining car of a train making the Verona - Paris run. I'm listening to music, my Compaq companion - a godsend on this trip. Privileged has two eyes and two ees.