Somehow going to South America caused me to experience and examine a full range of emotions I have not examined nor ever experienced before. It also caused me reexamine things I had seen and experienced before. Most of all, it all kind of felt like a movie going to Chile.

A couple of days ago, I got to visit the Pablo Neruda House in Santiago. Pablo Neruda was a Chilean diplomat who also wrote poems. These days he is better known as a poet than he was as a diplomat. Pablo Neruda was also a pseudonym that he wrote under because he didn’t want his family to know he was a poet.

A long time ago, I watched a movie called “Il Postino” about a postman who wooed a woman by getting advice from Pablo Neruda — who just happened to be living nearby. It was kind of a fantasy because Pablo Neruda wasn’t this guy’s neighbor and the movie took place in Italy, a place Neruda never really spent any time.

Visiting the Neruda house in Santiago brought back the memories of that movie and the feelings I had watching it and a lot of other movies that took place in the same region. There was always a feeling of ease and an unhurried life going on. There were drinks to be had, food to be eaten. The day would be sunny and there was nothing to worry about. That’s kind of how I felt when I went to the Neruda house. The place was so well preserved and it felt like someone had actually lived there. I love the mansions in Newport, but it always feels like nobody ever lived there. Those people lived in such splendor, but in the Neruda house, it felt like a person had actually lived there.

Don’t worry. Pablo just stepped out for a second. He’ll be right back. Let’s just have a look around his house while he’s gone: