Letters from Afar

The statue of Nathan Hale in my neighborhood, Cathedral Hill. His hands are depicted as tied. Hale was executed by the British during the Revolution and is credited with saying, "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country."

Happy Friday, friends. I'm a little slow on this as Blogger was not quite responding this morning. Erg.

So. The world is neither larger nor smaller today, but perception tells us otherwise. I feel it’s smaller, but that’s more than anything a feeling it is easier to navigate and know. That languages are not so difficult to learn. That travel is not nearly as frantic as I can make it out to be.

One day your thoughts are singular and intense and entirely Elsewhere. Another day, the thought of boarding a plane exhausts you and you put off trips. Many people put them off indefinitely.

I've no money for it, but I've got the travel bug again. I want to see København in the winter. I want to spend a month on the Aran Islands. I want to learn much more about that place just north of me. We call it Canada. Why have I gone there only once?


My neighborhood, circa October 1.

Letters

I received a wonderful letter out of the blue by Joy in Moscow. (Thanks, J!) She sang in college with Jana, and roundabout wound up at a passage on this blog regarding a dream of parachuting onto Russian soil.

All this has spurred in me a desire to pursue one of my old ideas about what to do at this blog: Interviews.

Next week I hope to publish on Wednesday some responses to questions I’ve sent her. And I hope to do this sort of interview gig on more Wednesdays. I love asking questions. I love hearing stories. I love sending notes into the Internet abyss and making new contacts.

On Thursday I hope to publish a travel photo or two and some brief anecdotes from a couple other people. Essentially, mixed in with all these random thoughts and confessions and embarrassments, I'd like to share some distant communications and stories from others. I'm fascinated by these things.

I hope some of you (particularly non-bloggers) won’t mind if I tag you from time to time for a short interview or a photograph from your travels, events, or life. Your recommendations are welcomed too.

Another Dinner

Though the conversation would probably be quite awkward, I'd like to invite to dinner that French woman who had a partial face transplant, Natascha Kampusch, and former soccer great Eric Cantona.
-cK