Shallow Be My Name

It’s always an interesting experience moving into a place that’s not your own. When you’re going to be away from home for an extended period of time, it behooves you to look at something people now call a “vacation rental” because you will save some money and, if you choose right, you’ll get something larger and more comfortable than the 250 sq. ft. room at the Motel 6 which is about what you would likely be able to afford for the two months you plan to be away. Not to mention the fact that you will have a chance to live in a “real” home, albeit one that is owned by someone who doesn’t want to live there or, at the very least, doesn’t want to be there when you do. If this is the case, I might suggest that before moving forward with your plans you take a close look at what’s going on in that neck of the woods during your planned vaca.

At any rate, in the world of vacation rentals the former is much more common than the latter so you are very likely to find yourself in a place that has been comfortably furnished in as generic a manner as possible as the owner attempts to create a decor that appeals to their clientele. And because they push their own design inclinations aside, they figure the best bet is to furnish their digs apropos to its location, meaning that if you are in the mountains your place will have a “modern rustic” look and if you are at the beach it’s going to be, well “beachy”.

Whatever the location, without a doubt, somewhere quite prominently displayed, will be a facsimile of the vista you see when you glance out your window, graced with a rhyming couplet that attempts to capture the sentiment that the facsimile pic should evoke. So I was less than surprised when making my way up the stairs of my temporary home, to come face to face with a too golden hued, stamped on canvas painting of the beach at sunset, clearly purchased at a discount home decor store specializing in the “most wall coverage for the buck”. And to complete the picture (both literally and figuratively) there, mounted on top, was the requisite plaque with these words of wisdom:

Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.

Now I hate to be cynical in the presence of such profound thinking but the truth of it is that unless you have some kind of debilitating dementia, which trust me, I hope none of you ever does, then this kind of goes without saying. I mean I walk on the beach everyday and I can tell you that there are only a few hours between low and high tide at which point any footprints that you made will in fact, be washed away. To give you some context here, it’s about the same amount of time it takes me to walk to the Starbucks, sit on the patio for a leisurely coffee, and then walk back to my new home and even those of you with memories worse than mine can surely lock something into your brain for that long. Which makes the verse more than a little trite, and might I be so humble to say, just a tad shallow.

It’s got me thinking however that just about anything could be put to verse and placed on one of those plaques for display in an appropriate room. Just think about it. In the kitchen you can express your thanks for your good fortune with “Around this table we all will eat, a bounty of vegetables, grains and meat” hung strategically at the table. Or when entering the living room you can be reminded that “Together we can relax and watch TV, or rent a movie for a small extra fee”. The bathroom is a little trickier but who wouldn’t find solace in “If I keep on trying it is my belief, that sooner or later there will be some relief”, with the corresponding pic of course.

I’ll stop there because I think my point I did achieve, so without further ado I’ll take my leave. But if this post has inspired you in any way, it is a game we all can play. So add your ideas before you go, and do your best to make them shallow. Because if they are good and not too forlorn, perhaps a new business has been born.