I can’t anymore. If one more ad for French jacquard table linen or limoncello recipes, hits my social media feed, it will be the tipping point!
Here’s what’s been going on — I’ve been day dreaming. Too much.
I’m not sure how it started. Somehow, though, one day there appeared a gorgeous golden dusk photograph of somewhere in Italy in my feed. I did the ridiculous, rising to the bait, and clicked on it. Voila! In moments I was transported. Transported to the shades of turquoise blues and greens of the sea, transported to the charm of the fuchsia bougainvillea climbing up the terrace, open to the magical sea views, with the perfectly healthy and enticingly elegant breakfast laid out on the tiled bistro table.
I was done for.
It was intoxicating.
I’m not saying “quasi-quar” COVID life is exactly like Natan Sharansky in solitary confinement in the gulag. Many of us are still so blessed with so much. Even in these very challenging circumstances.
Yet the imagination beckons.
The thought of traveling in my mind’s eye to other places in the world has been beautiful escapism.
And you know how it is once you click on one photo, on one ad.
The algorithms kick in.
Hence I have been targeted by ad-stalking travel photos.
I write that like it’s a bad thing. But oh, trust me, I’m not complaining. In this case, I felt, please, bring those algorithms on. Transport me mentally to these magical places!
Every day now, my feed features breathtaking photos from around the world.
Each one is its own surprise of loveliness and a stretch of the mind and heart to another time and place of beauty and curiosity.
At one point I was trying to take note of exactly where the photo might be. Embarrassingly enough, I’m talking looking at maps to try and determine the street or hotel or market. As if I’d really be traveling there and need to busy myself with preparing an exact itinerary. As if.
These photographs are as though winking at me . . . Hey . . . c’mere . . . come over here . . .you have to come . . . it’s so beautiful . . .you will love it!
I will love it, one day, when I actually get there.
For now, though, I was content with the photographs.
In my mind’s eye, I’ve thus far walked many a winding cobblestone path illuminated so gently by amber light. I’ve glided on boats on lakes. Ridden trains through the valleys of the famous fjords guarding azure inlets in what is known as “nature’s works of art.” I’ve inhaled the explosive and zesty perfumed scents of citrus as I walked through orchards and groves of overhanging lemons in Positano, had dinner in Rome and been to Venice by full moonlit night! There have been bike rides through fields of sweet floral lavender, rolling like purple waves, and the geometric and calming beauty of ripening vineyards.
I could go on and on. The canals in the Netherlands. Fishing towns in Greece. Each picture I click on creates the chain reaction of being targeted with the next photographs and then the next.
All these piazzas and sunsets, windmills and lush greenery have been wonderful to have in my feed. Many of them centered around around breakfast or dinner in some of the most picturesque of settings. While others were inviting for their adventures in hiking or boating.
The product ads are charming too. As I wrote, limoncello, jacquards, and lavender — these are not exactly the stuff of nuisance to be reminded about, if you know what I mean.
I must say, there is something about the anticipation and foretaste of travel that is its own pleasure, apart from the actual trip.
All these travel photos from around the world have filled me with both nostalgia for wonderful trips taken as well as anticipation for trips yet to come. This in and of itself provides its own kind of pleasure and contentment.
The captions on the photographs give me all the information I need to know so as to mentally bookmark them. Alberobello, Rhapsody by white, Dolomites Ortise, Assisi, Limone sul garda, etc.
Full disclosure, as a result of being bitten by the Italy bug, I even went so far as to bake a limoncello ricotta cookie.
But recently, the ads that are not exactly a nuisance have somehow crossed over to becoming exactly that!
I’ve run out of patience.
Now, they seem more like taunts. I will have to hold off on some of my happy photo clicking so as to have these ads and photos retreat for a time.
When I actually reach these quaint scenes captured so beautifully, and am sitting under that bougainvillea canopied terrace overlooking the turquoise sea, or am taking a morning walk on those cobblestones, then I will be more than happy to see all those ads again.
Until then, though, and especially with beautiful spring beckoning, I will stick to savoring and exploring my current local New York City environments of Central Park and Riverside Park, remaining firmly grounded in my present reality, both off and online, thank you very much.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
