The Doctor of Divinity meets the staff

 

Korngold is with Siri A. Honningsvåg and Sara Bazon in Floro / Norway.

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The Doctor of Divinity meets the staff-Rabbi Kushner tell this story and one of his books.

He describes officiating at a funeral when the mourner comes up to him and says, “Rabbi, I never runderstood the line in Psalm 23, ‘Your rod and your staff, they comfort me,’ until now. Your staff at the temple has been amazing to me since my dad died. I don’t think I could’ve gotten through this without them.’” Kushner writes that at first he thought the man misunderstood the meaning of staff, but then he realized that it was he, Rabbi Kushner, who had misunderstood.

This morning, I met the staff.

I am in the western most town of Norway. As you know, I worked very hard to get here. Closed tunnels, mountains that jilted me, a phone that got wet and spent the better part of a day in a bag of rice, detours over mtns, blah blah blah- However, the ferry that I plan to take no longer stops here. Or never did? Or maybe that Norwegian phrase means something else? I need help.

This is the price of traveling without planning. I love to travel with Amy who carefully researches where we will stay on our bike trips and even reviews the Google images of the roads to make sure they are small and safe for us. Her trips are the best!!! (Thank you Amy.) You would never ride to the western edge of a country, planning to take a ferry that doesn’t exist, on one of Amy’s trips.

However, I don’t do any of that. When I try to plan, I get overwhelmed by the choices and fall into the trap of wanting the trip to be the best because good or fine are insufficient.

(Danger lays ahead on this route people!!! You do not need to live your best life. Just live a good life. Be kind to people. Take care of your body. Call your mother. If your mother has died, call your sister, call your daughter, call your niece. Call someone that loves you and you love back. Don’t try to be the best! )

I digress. Doctors of Divinity do that.

The point is that I have a vague plan and I go. But now where will I go?

Back to needing help.

Sara Bazon at the front desk, both speaks English and is happy to help me. “You rode your bike all the way here? You are going where?”

It turns out the ferry is not canceled. It just doesn’t run on Sundays. I tell her I’ll go anywhere just not South. We finally find a ferry leaving at 4:30 this afternoon, that will take me north. From there, I can travel west, riding a couple hours and either camp or stay at another hotel. Thank you to the staff.

I head back to my breakfast table (yes Shara- I know you need to know what was for breakfast. I will add that at the end.), which I am now sharing with a Siri A. Honningsvåg whose family was seated next to me and has spilled onto mine.

She apologizes and I say no it’s great. It makes me feel like I have friends. She assures me that I do! I have a big group of friends now.

Did she say they were 300 of them here for a wedding? Between a Sri Lankan and a Norwegian? That the bride wore a wedding sari that this 6 meters long? That 300 guests blessed the sari? (Which means good thoughts/hopes, yes I asked.) That 2000 sri Lakens settled here in the 1980s? That they feasted on a perfect combo of Sri Laken appetizers and Norwegian cakes?

Two seats down is her grandmother who once took five kids in a minivan camping up the coast of Norway. Grandmother, mother, and daughter help me me make a plan. Everyone says a different part of the coast is the most beautiful and not to be missed. But something has to be skipped. We talk back-and-forth, with a lot of translation happening, And finally we decide. I’ll ride north another day then jump the Hurtigruten because it has a cool name and can get me around vestkapp, which is gorgeous and not to be missed they say, and then head north.

Your staff they comfort me.

Ps: My gear is alll dry including the light weight tent.

Pss: Shara Rutberg, 3 or 4 cups of coffee. It is true, although I don’t remember who recently told me this, but good coffee really doesn’t need sugar. Norwegian salmon because you have to. The most incredible strawberry, raspberry and blueberry jam ever. A crepe to put jams on. Yogurt to put jams on. Soft boiled egg on soft billowy wheat bread. More soft blowy freshly made wheat bread to put jam on on. Seriously next breakfast I’m changing my name to Francis and just having bread and jam. Cookies that look like my “nanny cookies” to dunk in one more cup of coffee.