An Afternoon with Salvador Dali

Okay, the title of today's blog entry is a little misleading since Salvador Dali died in 1989, so I couldn't really have spent yesterday afternoon with him. On the other hand, we did get to visit the home he shared with his wife Gala in Port Lligat, just outside Cadaques where we are now staying. (Have I mentioned that I'm writing to you from Spain?)

It's not that I believe in ghosts... but somehow the Dalis felt very present during our visit. And oddly, so did my grandparents... now you really must be thinking that I am losing my marbles during this holiday. Like Dali, my opa (the Dutch word for grandfather) was an artist... and the home he shared with my oma (Dutch for grandfather) in Plandome, New York, had something of the feel of the house we visited yesterday.

Dali was a Surrealist, more interested in some ways in dreams than in reality. When you first walk into the house, you are greeted by a huge stuffed bear, several necklaces draped around his neck. Now Opa and Oma's house didn't have a stuffed bear in their entrance way. What the houses had in common was a sense of beauty and order -- and playfulness. My favourite example from the Dali home: in the room adjoining the bedroom, the Dalis hung a large mirror in a special spot so that in the morning, they'd wake up to the sun rising in their bedroom. 

... When, earlier this summer, I flew from Paris home to Montreal, I sat next to a gentleman from Mauritius, we got into a very good conversation... the sort of conversation it's sometimes easier to have with a complete stranger. Well, this gentleman told me how, in his view, life is about moments, and you have to hold on tight to the special ones, make them last. I think maybe that is what Dali and his wife were doing... I like to imagine them waking up with the sun.... That's it for today's blog entry. May you find (or perhaps, like the Dalis, create) your moments!