{"id":3506,"date":"2025-04-06T16:30:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T16:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=3506"},"modified":"2025-04-06T16:30:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T16:30:59","slug":"strait-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=3506","title":{"rendered":"Strait Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Tangier-Ferry.heic\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Tangier-Ferry.heic\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3507\" style=\"width:500px;height:auto\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How narrow the narrow straits.&nbsp;&nbsp;That divide us.&nbsp;&nbsp;The width of a new moon.&nbsp;&nbsp;The crescent of a fingernail clipping.&nbsp;&nbsp;The narrows of sea washing between land fringed and scalloped \u2013 one side Africa, one side Europe.&nbsp;&nbsp;A shudder of civilizations in that two-lidded eye that opens, washes, blinks at our folly. The crossing of Gibraltar is shorter than crossing mainland Rhode Island to Block Island in the smallest state of America.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To think that orange trees grace the patios on both sides, the same palette of gold and blue asterisk tiles remains from the Almohads \u2013 to think that Islamic kingdoms lit up al-Andalus Spain for eight centuries &amp; make Seville&#8217;s Alc\u00e1zar the glittering sister of Morocco&#8217;s imperial palaces.  Now pulling away from Tangier, the minaret recedes, phones leap forward, midway in the strait, by several European hours. To think that time, that thick-headed concept, could move so radically in a ferry ride that takes an hour!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To think, to think, to think how much rides on such a minor waterway.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How narrow the narrow straits.&nbsp;&nbsp;That divide us.&nbsp;&nbsp;The width of a new moon.&nbsp;&nbsp;The crescent of a fingernail clipping.&nbsp;&nbsp;The narrows of sea washing between land fringed and scalloped \u2013 one side Africa, one side Europe.&nbsp;&nbsp;A shudder of civilizations in that two-lidded eye &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=3506\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1604,292,1602,1592,1603,1176,15],"class_list":["post-3506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-al-andalus","tag-culture","tag-islamic-art","tag-morocco","tag-mudejar","tag-spain","tag-travel"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4D5qU-Uy","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3508,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions\/3508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}