Vacationing During the Apocalypse

I almost feel guilty grabbing a week for family fun and solitary exploration while the world is melting down. I’m flying down to New Orleans, renting a cheap car and driving along the portion of the Gulf Coast affectionately known as the Redneck Riviera. Destination: Pensacola, Florida, where my only niece is graduating from college.

What better time to get away? The crisis in Greece appears to be spreading throughout the Western world like some sinister virus with a violent urge to replicate. The Dow plunged nearly a thousand points during one breath-stopping hour last week, and I don’t care to view similar plunges again in my lifetime. It would be ironic if Greece turned out to be both the alpha and the omega of Western Civilization — there at the creation and the destruction of our sputtering 2500-year experiment in freedom and philosophy.

Yes, I’ll be escaping from the discontents of civilization for an entire week. Though not entirely. All week long I’ll be skirting the great oil slick now spreading its tentacles toward the Gulf Coast. I hope to hit those blinding-white “sugar” sand beaches before the oil slick does. But in case I don’t, I’ll try to post some first-hand observations (via cell phone) of my close encounter with ecological disaster.

Meanwhile, try to stay centered, everyone!