SAVING THE SEA'S CORAL
_w140_h140/Blog%2008%20A%20(540%20×%20360%20px)_02160632.png "SAVING THE SEA'S CORAL")
Feb 16, 2023 by John Lockton
Healthy coral reefs are the most spectacular, diverse, and economically valuable marine ecosystem on the planet. Complex and productive, coral reefs are central to biodiversity in the oceans, providing a home to 30,000 to 60,000 species of plants and animals, a nursery for many commercially important fish, and a protective coastal barrier against storm waves. Hundreds of billions of dollars in food, jobs, and tourist spending depend upon the continued existence of healthy coral reefs.
Something We Should Understand Better
Jan 16, 2023 by John Lockton
How many days have we picked up a newspaper or our iPhone and read about boys being abused--priests, school teachers, coaches, and scoutmasters molesting boys in their charge, and the Boy Scouts and churches paying out bankrupting amounts of money to settle claims. Certainly, it is not a new subject. The roman emperor, Tiberius, supposedly kept young boys on Capri for his sexual pleasure. And in ancient Greece man-love of boys was apparently tolerated if not approved.
The Soul of Waves
Dec 01, 2022 by John Lockton
Ocean waves capture men with their beauty and power, entrancing in the regular rhythm of their ocean music, creating terror and joy in their beholding, carrying on their backs fishermen and sailors to food and livelihood. Surfers ride them. They can lull you to sleep and wake you up, and most recently have learned to provide electricity.
Life Mimicking Sailing* Constant Changes of Direction... Moments of High Drama!
Nov 18, 2022 by John Lockton
Perhaps because my life has been one of adventure and drama, I have always been interested in novels of excitement that explore the adventure of being alive, and from early adulthood have wanted to write novels about my extraordinary life. My first wife encouraged me. Impetus was lost when she jumped out of a window of the Waldorf Astoria in front of me. Couldn’t grab her in time. A sad novel awaits about that.
ANGUILLA, THE MOUSE THAT ROARED
Oct 20, 2022 by John Lockton
Anguilla is my favorite island in the Caribbean. Many reasons. It has the friendliest people. With thin soil Anguilla never had successful plantations and avoided the brutal slavery of other islands. The memory of past slavery doesn’t get in the way of friendliness. Beaches are among the most beautiful in the Caribbean, Shoal Bay Beach in particular is incomparable. Exceptional hotels and guest houses. Very special restaurants including Blanchard’s Restaurant, the subject of a marvelous book, “A Trip to the Beach.”
Caribbean Travel and the Weed from Hell
_w140_h140/Minimal%205%20Star%20Client%20Review%20Blog%20Graphic%20(365%20×%20365%20px)_09050834.png "Caribbean Travel and the Weed from Hell")
Sep 05, 2022 by John Lockton
You’ve been looking forward to a winter vacation in the Caribbean for months, pouring over hotel information and Airbnb listings, checking airlines to find a cheap fare. (There are none). The day of your trip finally arrives, December, January, or whatever. You beat your way through TSA, suffer the cattle car air trip, and you are there, at what you are sure is the best place, the best value, near the best beach. You jump into a bathing suit, dash to the beach, ready to leave behind all stress in the warm welcoming waters of the Caribbean.
The Unintended Novelist
_w140_h140/Red%20Modern%20Content%20Creator%20Instagram%20Post%20(1)_08160612.png "The Unintended Novelist")
Aug 16, 2022 by John Lockton
I'm an unintended novelist. I know most people write novels because it's something they want to do much of their lives. They major in English at college, attend seminars and writers’ conferences, write short stories or articles as a build-up to “their novel.” I admire these people and admire what they produce. Then there are the others. I'm definitely one of those. Read my bio. No training to be a novelist. No English courses at college. I don’t even remember a high school English class though I must have had one. We untrained novelists experience something denied to those who dutifully study to become novelists. A wonderful surprise. The surprise of having a full-length, well reviewed novel pop out of one from nowhere. How great is that? Believe me, one of the biggest and happiest surprises of my life.
Two Statues Defining Caribbean Slavery
Jul 14, 2022 by John Lockton
Countries tell their history through their statues. Know the statues and you know the country. That’s why I went to the statue of Prince Klass on the outskirts of St. Johns, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda. The statue with its marble base proved to be more than twenty feet tall, Klass impressively dressed in eighteenth century costume with a plumed hat, his head thrown up to heaven, blowing a conch shell to summon slaves to freedom. When I talked to white Antiguans about Klass, those claiming descend from the English who colonized Antigua, they say in 1736 Klass headed a slave revolt, was intending to kill all the whites on Antigua, and doesn't deserve a statue.
YORUBA. IT’S MORE THAN VOODOO
Jan 24, 2022 by John Lockton
Having just completed a book on the Caribbean, Odyssey’s Child, that features the Yoruba religion, I have made a study of the religion. My interest started years earlier in Rio.
If you want to be in the most joyful place in the world on New Year’s Eve go to Rio. Three million people on Copacabana Beach celebrating around you, everyone dressed in white, the rich in white, favela dwellers in white, no distinction between rich and poor, rich and poor together happily casting white gladiolas and roses into the sea and pushing out hand-made paper boats bearing candles and offerings. The largest New Year's gathering in the world, far larger than the Times Square ball drop.
If you want to be in the most joyful place in the world on New Year’s Eve go to Rio. Three million people on Copacabana Beach celebrating around you, everyone dressed in white, the rich in white, favela dwellers in white, no distinction between rich and poor, rich and poor together happily casting white gladiolas and roses into the sea and pushing out hand-made paper boats bearing candles and offerings. The largest New Year's gathering in the world, far larger than the Times Square ball drop.
THE CARIBBEAN RING OF FIRE
Jan 10, 2022 by John Lockton
Yes. Caribbean ring of fire. Most think of the Caribbean as beautiful beaches, marvelous people, and some of the most vibrant music in the world. It’s not about about volcanos. That’s for Hawaii, right? Not so. The eastern Caribbean islands, called the Lesser Antilles, is one of the most highly volcanic regions of the globe, a curving line of volcanos running from north of the Virgin Islands down almost to Venezuela, twenty one active volcanoes in total. Each of these volcanos could erupt again at any time, and they are far more in number than in the Hawaiian islands.
THE BLUE, BLUE CARIBBEAN
Jan 10, 2022 by John Lockton
So you have come to the Caribbean and seen the water. Or you are thinking of going and have seen the pictures. Yes. It's as beautiful as it looks. The water on beaches like White Beach on Jost Van Dyke Island in the British Virgin Islands, Shoal Bay on Anguilla, Galley Bay in Antigua, the beaches of Barbuda, and many more, have the clearest and bluest water in the world.