The Idiot never completely quits promoting “The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean.” But he does slow down a bit during the delicious lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Now somewhat sedentary, he’s gleefully taking advantage of cyber bargains for Idiot-ic Christmas gifts (“Follow the Idiot” nightdresses and thongs for women, “The Idiot and the Odyssey II” military caps and wine chillers for men) at the Follow The Idiot online boutique (http://www.cafepress.com/followtheidiot). That will keep him busy until he demonstrates the iBooks version of “The Idiot II” while peddling paperback copies on Saturday (Dec. 7, 1-4 pm, All About Books, 1301 Court St, Redding, CA 96001).
It’s never too cold for Idiot-ic garments.
There’s a wealth of Idiot-ic merchandise.
Can I maintain an Idiot-ic expression at All About Books?
While he has a lot more to read and review about Alexander the Great for the third book in his series of Mediterranean travel narratives (scheduled for publication in 2018), he perfects relax mode by cracking Dan Brown’s “Inferno,” playing real-time Scrabble and recycling outdated documents.
Dan Brown meets Alexander the Great.
Shred and Recycle!
Relaxing Scrabble.
Not a complete couch potato, he keeps in shape, maintains contact with nature and practices walking meditation while hiking in Northern California. During Thanksgiving he walked the Sacramento River Trail, visited Shasta Lake and participated in the Planksgiving workouts at the Redding YMCA.
Ready to walk the Sacramento River Trail.
Walking on Shasta Lake.
When he walked the River Trail’s Peace Labyrinth, he even quoted a paragraph from “The Idiot II”:
“We frequently walk through a Peace Labyrinth on the river trail. It’s a short and simple but peaceful meander, and it’s customary to leave a stone, either in decoration or to increase the length of the path, on each visit. Before one walking meditation I shared a bit of knowledge picked up on the Med from archeologist Sandy MacGillivray on Crete.
“To the ancient Greeks the labyrinth was a metaphor for life,” Sandy told me. “It’s a complex of twists and turns, deceptive dead-ends, double-backs, and long meandering diversions, through which the explorer, having entered, had to find his way in order to confront the monster, half-human/half-divine, which lurked there.”
To the Peace Labyrinth.
Mindfully walking the Peace Labyrinth.
He also helped bake pumpkin bread and balanced his outdoor activity with elaborate holiday dinners, including five elaborate dinners in a row during Thanksgiving.
Using a MedTrek trail recipe for pumpkin bread.
Dine on.
To keep him focused on the Mediterranean his kids, recalling how The Idiot picked olives when they were growing up in the south of France (an amusing incident recounted in “The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean”), gave him an olive tree for Christmas before they returned to their day jobs.
Alive and olive well.
(Photos: Liz Chapin and Joel Stratte-McClure)
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