the sun also sets

A Canadian friend asked me last week why I live in Barra de Navidad during the summer.

This is why.

Or it is one reason.

Our beach sunsets during the rainy season are nothing less than spectacular. Certainly, we have nice sunsets in the winter. But the combination of summer clouds and the angle of the sun's light make August a photographer's oasis.

The best photographs, of course, are at the edge of the Pacific where you can snap cliché shots of sunsets framed by sand, surf, and palms.

I did not have the luxury of standing in the sand last night. I was returning to the house from watching Omar play on a soccer team sponsored by Rooster's restaurant when I noticed the sunset off to my left.

The evening had earlier offered rainbows though misty rain. But the grand finale was one of the most colorful sunsets I have yet seen here. There was just the right mix of overcast to reflect a fascinating shade of purple while the lower clouds allowed the sun to partially break through to refract its light across the full color spectrum.

The fact that I had a chicken wire fence in the foreground did not matter. I just stood and appreciated.

At the end of last week, I wanted something different for my evening entertainment. I have become bored with Netflix's offerings of television series. So, I watched five of my DVD movies -- each for different reasons.

Conan the Barbarian, Nicholas and Alexandra, The Man in the Glass Booth, Patton, and The Death of Stalin. That is quite a variety.

I made a double feature out of Patton and The Death of Stalin. Both of them deal with the fight against totalitarianism. The first lionizes one of America's greatest generals in the war that defeated the National Socialists.

The second catches the dark comedy of one of the world's evilest political philosophies trying to survive foibles of its own making. The two films were an interesting contrast. One so earnest it lacks any sense of irony; the other awash in black-comedy satire.

But the film that had the deepest meaning for me was The Man in the Glass Booth -- the 1975 film of Robert Shaw's play exploring the Holocaust and antisemitism. I had watched the DVD only a few months ago. But the rise of antisemitism on the white nationalist right and the far left has been troubling me.

Rather than jump on my soap box, let me reccommend The Man in the Glass Booth to you. After watching it, let's talk.

Until then, enjoy the sunset with me.

Or, if you like, stop by the house and we can watch a movie of your choice. We can then sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the deaths of kings.