…. from the academic life, that is. It seems perhaps not. I opened my email this morning to find a message from a Spanish sociologist enquiring about an article I wrote back in (I think) the 1990s. The piece is called Tourism as a sacred journey. Since I left the university in 2001 I have avoided as studiously as possible all temptations to turn my attention back to social science. I find that writing and painting don’t sit easily together inside the same head. Even so, this morning there was a definite twinge, as I realised that there might well be a parallel piece, looking at the viewing of art as a “sacred journey”. The activity of viewing art fascinates me …. and puzzles me, even where I am the viewer and not the artist. Like Ulysses, however, I will lash myself to the mast in order not to hear this particular siren-song. There’s at least an M.Sc. thesis in there somewhere for somebody, and I make a free gift of the idea to anyone who wants to take it up. Meanwhile, I’ve escaped!