You would have to think about the oddity of people like Carol and me who were not paid very well as school teachers and have been able to go on cruises to distant lands to see how other people live.  I note that the voyeurism involved has, in the past, taken us to places where the Yankee dollar once meant a lot and there was a scramble to be in the right place when you dispensed your dollars.  That time seems to have gone with the belief that democracy can be made to work in places where it is obvious that ingrained privilege and repression prevent changes.  Our trip to the Eastern Mediterranean brought us up to the reality that other people live quite well and the Yankee dollar is not what it used to be. Our trip did not include a visit to the third worlds under classes in Africa and Asia.  We were seeking the sources for the Western World’s successes in history, philosophy and art.

One reality into which our noses were forced aside from the lowered value of the greenback dollar was the fact that people go to work and work very hard under repressive conditions in order to be able to send money to their families who were not on the itinerary of the cruises we lately have been on.  There was the obvious difference between the customers on board a ship and the workers who did the scut work that made other people, some like us, enjoy being catered to.  We got to know the people who “served” us and a bit of their history and destiny keeping the Westerdam of the Holland American Line functioning.

We learned a great deal about antiquity in the places we visited.  Ruins poke their heads up next to modern buildings and speedways for the best cars produced by both Europe and Japan.  The people who live in parts of the world we visited and others parts that would still welcome Americans if not their dollars.  We discovered that there were many Canadians and Europeans who took the trip with us and were inveterate cruise patrons.  We found that there are a great many people who have saved their Euros or Liras and are spending them sailing the seas.  It is a nice life if you like the constant attention to your plates of food, the comfort of your cabin and your entertainments throughout the day and just before you go to sleep at night.

What interested me most, aside from the trips ashore to see how the indigenous people lived, was the fact that there is a class structure built solidly into all that we did and all that we saw.  There are differences, you know.  We could afford to be on that ship and others wanted desperately to sign a contact to assure them of money to send back home.  I think people live on other people.