❝ The romantic ideal of travel is to leave as one version of yourself and return another, changed, “better” of yourself. This trip changed me, but not in the ways you might classically expect. I’ve returned suspicious of travel, more confused than ever about why so many people travel. Unsure if most travel of the last few decades makes sense, or has ever made sense or justified the cost. It feels like some consumerist, un-curious notion of travel was seeded long ago and, like a zombie fungus, has mind controlled everyone to four specific canals in Venice. To a single painting at the Louvre. To three streets and a square in Manhattan. To a few rickety back alleys around Gion. An eminently photogenic set of torii in Kyoto. There is no adventure — and probably little growth vis-à-vis the very definition of the word itself (though I admit this gets judgey very quickly; but you know what I mean) — in this kind of travel, but there is cost. ❞ *
Craig Mod with one of the best ruminations on travel (and, yes, COVID-19) that I’ve read. Highly recommended:
Covid. — Roden Newsletter Archive
https://memora8ilia.com/index.php/2022/07/26/covid-roden-newsletter-archive/