I went on a holy land cruise this year. After I booked the trip I realized that the holy land isn’t actually coastal, which meant a long bus ride every shore excursion to get to the holy part that wasn’t on the shore, but it was a great room on a comfortable vessel and we had almost perfect weather.

The ship holds about 700 passengers and there’s no way I met or saw them all. In fact, I only went to my dining room table twice, and I didn’t gamble or attend the shows. If it weren’t for the shore excursions, where I lunched with others and got on and off buses with an increasingly familiar group, I might not have spoken to a soul. As it was I talked to dozens. Eavesdropped on many. Watched hundreds. Here are my gross generalizations.

They were mostly from the U.S., and older. I saw no children. There were few Jews and no Muslims. The crowd seemed to be about half Catholic and half other Christian.

Without exception, the people were polite, careful, and warm. I only witnessed one incident of petulance, when a young adult whined at her father for taking some of her pita.

Maybe I’m hanging out with kids too much, but none of my fellow passengers appeared bright. I heard them passing tidbits of port information around, corrupting the data with each transmission, and I picked up wild “facts” about belly dancers earning $15,000 an hour, or certain cruises requiring that passengers spend at least $20,000 on “art,” but I never experienced one instance of a person asking a real question.

In fact, except for some social studies types of queries on shore excursions, I heard no questions at all. Everyone I experienced seemed bent on describing his or her own deal, about home or descendants or prior cruises. Over and over I heard folks telling stories they already knew.

Nobody had any questions.

     I eavesdropped on a hundred travelers telling where they’d been.
     I watched a woman orating on nothing but her kin.
     I heard a man define himself asserting his demands.
     I’m sure one can’t receive a hint, who always understands.