Parallel Universes

At certain moments, almost without warning, your sensory perception suddenly improves.

You see differently, hear sounds that normally might be white noise. You can smell a faraway scent, or, as you run your fingers over a smooth table, or a soft arm, you feel a sensual rush that normally eludes you.

Taste is enhanced. You savor a piece of food with new appreciation.



In the summer of 1970, in Taloqan, Afghanistan, it was hot and dry. So hot (over 100 degrees F) and so dry that my body was apparently ready to accept tastes that never before had pleased me.



Someone served a "salad" consisting of two foods the younger version of me always thought he hated -- sliced tomatoes and sliced raw onions. They were chilled, and as I tentatively allowed them to enter my parched lips and perch on my dry tongue, an amazing thing happened.

They tasted delicious!

I've had variations of this experience many times in many places. Maybe it's nothing more than learning to appreciate new sensations under new circumstances.

When in Japan, I often encounter foods that, back home, I wouldn't ever choose to eat. But somehow in Japan, these items bring me an entirely new form of joy. The same in India (vegetable samosas), France (foie gras), Finland (reindeer), Pakistan (blood oranges), Germany (creamed herring, pickles, and beer for breakfast -- hmmm), and on and on.

The sharp afternoon sunlight in Paris, the late-night ambiance of a London pub, the grinding sounds of music in the bars in the tropical islands of the South Pacific. Taipei's couples walking at midnight; Amsterdam on a harbor cruise, Sydney on a harbor cruise, Puerto Limon with its giant sloths in giant trees.

Southern India's wild elephants in herds in a nature preserve; Brussels with its Grand'Place at wintertime. The list goes on and on -- places, times, feelings. Each reference yields a new wave of memories.

Even in my modest backyard, every day is a new one, with the birds and butterflies and cats and humans, trees and plants that share this place repeating daily rituals only to suddenly achieve new ones.

I, the observer, can only watch in wonder.

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