January 16th, 2006
"Bye"
Greetings. I had written a long-ish update, then discarded
most of it. You're reading the scattered fragments from that muffled explosion.
The profusion of quotes at the end probably says more than I will.
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Lots of cold nights last month or two. Reminds me how I used to open my windows
in the wintertime just before going to sleep so that I'd fall asleep snuggled
deep into the warm thick blankets of my own bed. And then I get to thinking how
all my memories seem to be of my trip, this being one of the odd ones that
predate it. I don't know what to think of that. Everything past seems a distant
dream, including my quick venture home last year. Was that even real? It's all
such a disrealitic blur.
Tomorrow I leave
No more email, either, until I get home.
If you're thinking what I'm thinking, I think you're right.
' "The other ambassadors warn of famines, extortions, conspiracies, or else they
inform me of newly discovered turquoise mines, advantageous prices in marten
furs, suggestions for supplying damascened blades. And you?" the Great Khan
asked Polo, "you return from lands equally distant and you can tell me only the
thoughts that come to a man who sits on his doorstep at evening to enjoy the
cool air. What is the use, then, of all your traveling?" ' (Italo Calvino)
'All these thoughts are popping like corn in my brainpan.' ---and---
'...civilization is not an end in itself but a theater or gymnasium in which the
evolving individual finds facilities for practice.' (Tom Robbins)
'I have money, a passport, luggage, a warm coat. Will that be enough? Enough of
a skin to wrap myself in while I shed what had been my life.' (Jeanette
Winterson)
'In the nine years that followed I wandered here and there throughout the world,
trying everywhere to be spectator rather than actor in all the comedies that go
on.' ---and--- 'Thus I lived in appearance, just like those who have nothing to
do but to live a pleasant and innocent life and attempt to obtain the pleasures
without the vices, to enjoy their leisure without ennui, and to occupy their
time with all the respectable amusements available. But in reality I never
desisted from my design...' (Rene Descartes)
'Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.' (Kurt Vonnegut)
'So!' (Ajahn Chah)
'Come along with me to my little corner of the world;
Dream a little dream in my little corner of the world;
You'll soon forget that there's any other place...' (Yo La Tengo)
And finally...
'In this latest
version of himself...' (Hari Kunzru)
Away Awhile is hosted by Josh Trutwin.