When I interviewed for my current job, I told a (true) story about my first interview in the same district 22 years prior, for a school psychologist position. When I was asked where I saw myself in a few years, I thought for a moment and recounted a memorable passage from Under the Tuscan Sun:

Tuscans are of this time; they simply have had the good instinct to bring the past along with them. If our culture says burn your bridges behind you – and it does – theirs says cross and recross.

I only thought it fitting to repeat it when I was board approved for the position.

_Under the Tuscan Sun_is a book about which you can unironically say is better than the movie. I learned about it from A Common Reader, an early online bookseller famous for its paper catalog: the book descriptions were worth reading, irrespective of the likelihood that you would buy the book. I read it in Italy, when Rhonda and I were on vacation (in the summer of 1999, I think). It was a great book.

The novel is by no means heavy, but the movie has a much lighter vibe, and it is not an improvement. The characters in the movie are mere caricatures of the novel’s.

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I was thinking about our last vacation, and how both of us are eager to go back to the same hotel in Cape May. But I was thinking about other places, too. Not necessarily that much further from home as Cape May, but I hatch plots from time to time. Maybe notions is a better word.

That makes me wonder if one is better than the other, or if it’s just a matter of preference. Exploring and trying new things is always fun for me. But I do enjoy the comforts of the routine. In all things, moderation, I suppose.