#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Sunset, in praise of Alexei Navalny
“Lyosha, thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness,” she wrote, and then alluding to his imprisonment: “Yes, even in the last three years of happiness.”
~ Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia, The Guardian
Walking down the hill toward Playa Pelada, I tuned into CNN Live to listen to the funeral of Navalny, as much as I could. It was the time of his burial. Thousands of people risking arrest attended. As the broadcasters described the scene, his casket was lowered into his grave and all the people were clapping in praise of his life, in honor of his death. I was at the entrance of the beach and I stopped, and I applauded him too.
This was my last walk to the beach for this trip and hit was a hot, bright morning, of course. Last night, we were all talking about George, the massage therapist, Thai massage therapist that our friend Liz met here and introduced us to three years ago. We all saw him again this year and he is amazing. He is from Hungary, but he lives here now year round. And the picture he uses on What’s App is a terrible picture of him, and we all were jokingly saying that we should tell him he needs a new picture to attract more clients. Well, I walked from the beach to the French Bakery we visit often because I wanted to get some bread to take home for breakfast. I was standing in line, and who walked in, but George! He had on a lovely cotton print shirt in blue and white, and I laughed to myself, well, this is my chance. As we said hello, I told him how nice he looked in this shirt. Then I said, George, wouldn’t it be nice to have a picture of yourself in this shirt for your website? Yes! He agreed. So we went out into the lush and lovely courtyard and I took his picture and it looked great! What a lovely bit of synchronicity. We had a quiet day; some time at the beach, some time packing. Tonight, out to dinner at a favorite restaurant up in the hills with a collection of friends, some transplants, some Costa Rican, and it was the perfect end to a special trip. Early, we depart.