Places I’ve Known
Travel has, in many ways, defined my personal and working life. I’ve lived over a year in eight countries (guess which!) and spent significant time in a handful of others. I love experiencing new places, and I’m always excited to encounter a new culture—new food, art, architecture, and, most of all, people. Looking at this map (from Nomad Mania) brings two things to mind:
First, how little of the world I’ve actually seen (given how much of the world I’ve seen). It’s a reminder to try to make the most of every trip and every moment, because there’s no guarantee of ever making it back.
Second, there’s a cost to all that travel, paid by the planet and by future generations. The best way to reduce personal impacts is to lower emissions, and I’m working to do that in my life—including by being more selective about travel for work and pleasure. When I do travel, I’m committed to offsetting my emissions. Knowing the best way to do this is complex, but this Guardian article provides some useful options if you’d like to explore.
While I’m at it, here are (most!) of my London walks and runs during 20 months of pandemic time:
Things I’ve Grown
A silver lining of COVID-19, for me, was discovering that I love to garden. I guess that makes me about as unique as everyone who discovered they like to bake sourdough. Nevertheless, this space will eventually be devoted to the armada of little green beings with whom I battled pests and pestilence for the past few years.
Memories Along the Way…
At last count, I had about 90,000 unique photos on my multitudinously-backed up external hard drive, mostly taken with a sequence of trusty Nikons, but supplemented by increasingly lovely iPhone images. Another several thousand live offline in cellulose and fading prints. It will take some time, but I hope to show a few of the best of these images (or at least my favorites) here.
