Reflections from Guadeloupe
Back to solo travelling (now in Guadeloupe), and I genuinely intended to have a quieter final day of the trip. I threw on my swimming shorts and meditated in a square in the middle of a tropical storm (I meant socially quieter), visited a local marketplace, took a long walk out to the most beautiful beach…
And then found a spot for dinner. The owner (who I’d run into earlier that day, and promised to return), told me that I looked like Jesus. We had a good laugh.
I sat near a small group of locals (all in their 50s), who immediately took me under their wing—although they spoke Creole, and my faded high-school French wasn’t quite robust enough to keep up fully. But thankfully, two of them were consistently offering translations when I looked completely lost.
They clearly appreciated my messy attempts to converse. Any barrier of race, language, or age was shattered this evening.
About two and a half hours later as I got up to leave, a man walked over—and immediately, the whole group turned to him and excitedly insisted that he meet me. Both puzzled, we shook hands and were immediately shooed off to our own table…
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I’d caught the words “artist” and “film,” but not much else. After I asked what he does, he relished in a lengthy pause, puffed his cigarette, and said “entrepreneur.” I couldn’t tell if this was a Bond villain or simply the most charismatic person I’d ever encountered.
He apparently has a very well connected “associate” (this was confirmed by an impressive number of celebrity-selfies) who has rubbed up against a number of expensive shoulders in the American film industry.
In a dance between languages, we made our way through a conversation about creativity, film, and my aspirations. It took me a bit to realize I was in the midst of an interview.
By the end of the night, he’d given me his email and told me to send him a demo or some kind of snippet of my work (if only I had proof of some concept…).
I think I understood his final line to me: “If it’s bad, this was a good conversation. If it’s good, I’ll tell him, and we will make things happen.”
I don’t know what to do with all this serendipity and love.