It’s what happens. Always. People don’t understand it. They doubt me when I tell them about it happening, but that doesn’t change the truth. It happens and it happens all the time.
Saint Martin is a lovely spot in the Leeward Islands. I like the French side of the island. The Dutch side is nice, but too commercial, too busy, and just not relaxing; so, the French side of the island is where I like to spend my time. I like the bay at Orient, I like the sunrises, and I find the upscale beach bars to be anything like your typical beach joint. Yes, the tabs brought by the waitstaff at the end of the day can challenge your wallet but fun and calm aren’t cheap. Grand Case is known as the culinary capital of the Caribbean and me, being the foodie that I am, I find a home there amongst the Michelin starred chefs.
Whether it is on the cliffs of Acapulco, the tropical paradise of the Islands, or even in my own dining room, I dress for dinner. What happened to enjoying life, looking good for others as well as for yourself, and celebrating the day? I spend a bit of time in a very nice restaurant in Houston and I always shake my head at those showing up in shorts and shower shoes expecting to get a table.
I moved from the Midwest to the south nearly 40 years ago. I haven’t missed the winters even for a moment. However, the south has a few blasts of frigid weather each year of which I make it a point to try to escape. In January of 2020 I was on the island of Saint Martin. I was in Grand Case, having dinner in a nice French Caribbean restaurant, and enjoying a nice evening. Being the Caribbean, I was dressed in a white dinner jacket, slacks, and a bow tie. In that restaurant I struck up a conversation with a nice couple who weren’t locals or Americans and were escaping their country’s winter as well. We had a nice talk and enjoyed our time. As luck would have it, we saw each other in the hotel I was staying in a couple of days later. We joined one another for breakfast, had a nice meal, enjoyed our respective company, and then parted ways to continue our lives.
It happens. Period. I have met heads of state, Archbishops, rock stars, movie personalities, and hard-working people making their way in the world, in the most unusual places. Call it luck, or maybe coincidence, say I have a knack, whatever, I don’t care. It is uncanny, it happens to me all the time with a frequency that isn’t normal.
I like a certain resort in Puerto Morelos, Mexico and fly down there fairly often. The staff knows me and is very kind to me. In October of last year I was leaving their French restaurant after a wonderful meal of braised rack of lamb, I happened to be wearing the same white dinner jacket I wore years prior on the island of Saint Martin, and was walking through the lovely landscaped grounds making my way back to my room.
“David? Hello. I knew that was you. I saw you in that lovely jacket and I just knew.”
What are the odds I would run into Chris 5 years later, a quarter of the way around the globe from where we first met, thousands of miles from our homes, at the same moment in a secluded resort, rather than the busy tourist facilities, in Mexico?
I received a text from him this evening. He is in Australia visiting his son and I am here on my ranch. Neither of us are in our main homes, yet we thought of each other and connected while we were on opposite sides of the earth. We met once, then against all odds, we met again
It happens to me all the time. It’s weird, it freaks me out sometimes, but it’s almost normal, it is what my life is.
