Philip II Was Busier

 

A small business owner, I’m busy.  I don’t know if I’m as busy as you. I have lots of clients. Am grateful for their business and they keep me very busy.  It is safe to say that no matter how busy any of us are, Philip II was busier. Perhaps the enormity of his burden forced him to be a consummate whiner.  Philip II  let everyone know he was too busy for most things.  (Phil inherited the largest empire the world had ever seen.  Genghis never even knew there was a new world to conquer.)  Then Phil came in line to absorb the Portuguese throne and, with a little persuasion, took over the second largest empire in the world as well.  Hence, Phil had so many demands, hundreds of must-do’s came across his desk every day.   He had reason to complain. 

I’d wanted to finish off the “The Imprudent King” before I left and then I’d figured I’d finish it on the plane but sleep took me and it wasn’t until last night, that I finally made my way through the remainder of the biography. How did he reconcile murder of Escodobo and then the murder of the man who murdered Escodobo, Perez ll in the defense of Catholicism?  He won great battles, as with the confrontation with the Ottomans at Lepento while at the same time lose key battles in the Netherlands at sea with England and always it was God’s will.  It’s hard not to read with a sense of inevitability towards our current democracy.  Kings were a horrible way to rule.  Phil II wasn’t a bad fellow.  But no one could have done that job “well.”

 

The flight over the Mrs. and I were bumped to business but, heading to Spain, feeling chivalrous we offered our tickets up to our daughters.  They’d want to sleep.  They’d enjoy the novelty.  I for one, didn’t care.  It was odd being on a plane itself, for the first few moments.  But then it was back to normal, being in a crowded space with so many other strange humans. I was good about my mask, but you have to eat.  And like I did last time I’d flown, eighteen months ago, just before the pandemic descended, I thought about the poor  stewards and stewardesses who have to be surrounded with strange humans four or five times a week, to earn their daily bread. 

Getting in the country was easy.  Should I be worried?  Waited a long time at Hertz.  They tried to give me a Skoda.  I had to look it up.  They’re from the Czech Republic.  I’m sure it’s a fine car but I’d pre-ordered a Volvo.  What happened to that? They ended up giving me a new “DS” model instead.  I had to look up that brand as well.  It’s from France. I was calmed but only so much so.  The interface looked like it was designed for someone who was trying to imitate a Cadillac, but had failed.  I took it.  We drove to Toledo, which wasn’t far, but I was so tired and though I pulled off at one or another service stops I couldn’t seem to find the café with a double espresso I’d hoped for.  At Toledo there was free parking outside the city and we took a cab up and considered the Alcazar in the distance and the ochre walls of this fabled city. 

 

 

 

Monday, 08/16/21