An emerald sea and a sapphire sky.
Lying on the pearl-white beach at Lido Key, Florida.
Eyes focused on infinity, and up there it hangs - a Magnificent
Frigatebird (that’s really its name), heading south to its mating grounds in
April or May. The first time I saw one,
I was on Lido Beach
in the Sarasota
area, researching locations for my seventh Amish-Country Mystery, Harmless
as Doves. Lido is a beach like the
one on famous Siesta Key just to the south, where Amish kids, in Florida for a winter
vacation at Pinecraft, like to swim. So
my wife Madonna and I were there at Lido,
taking in the sights, and that first Magnificent Frigatebird came into view
overhead.
I watched it for the longest time, as it glided south, as slow as a black
Amish buggy, never once flapping its long wings, each one bent like a boomerang
to harness the wind. That Magnificent
Frigatebird had someplace to be, but it didn’t evidently need to be there that
day. Whenever it got there would be soon
enough, it seemed to say. When it needed
more altitude, it just glided back over land, circled up the staircase of a
suitable thermal, and then took course again for the south. Lazy.
Serene. Surreal.
I’ve often wondered how to explain the pace of travel behind a slow
Amish buggy on the narrow lanes of Holmes
County, Ohio. You find yourself trapped behind one, on a
curvy or hilly road, and that’s where you’ll stay for a while. Like the Frigatebird, they may have someplace
to be, but it might not be today. You’re
in glide mode, and you might as well ride the thermals.
That’s what’s it’s like to travel behind a black Amish buggy – like the
glide of a Magnificent Frigatebird. Slow
and high above it all. Other-worldly. Impossibly unhurried. You may have someplace to be, but you might not
get there today.Labels: Amish, Amish Culture, Amish-Country Mysteries, Holmes County, P. L. Gaus
