Your happy place

"Show not a Phoenician the desert, nor a Bedouin the sea, for their ways are different."

So goes an ancient proverb, contrasting a people who thrived in the perils of the sea with a people who thrived in the perils of the desert.

My lunchtime commute was graced with an old song by Little River Band, kind of a boring melody but the words are poignant. The singer longs to be alone again, sailing on "the bright, clear water."

Me, sailing alone on the bright, clear water -- I'd be freaked out, wondering what beasts lurked beneath me in the blue waiting for my craft to capsize.

To some men (and women), happiness is clinging to the side of some lofty mountain, with only a petard to prevent their grisly death. Others thrive in the throng of a busy city, weaving their way through homicidal traffic.

One man's pleasure is another man's terror.