So, effects of the pandemic:

a long time ago— let’s call it 25 years or so— I was involved with a Brit who had been my cultural studies professor in college, 17 years my senior.

Different times.

On a trip to visit his family in the U.K., he took me to Tintagel, in Cornwall

We descended through a valley, down to the coast, stepped out of the far, and for the first time ever I was so shocked by nature that I cried.

The waves crashing against the rocks and mountains, emerging out of nowhere after an hour of winding roads, stunned and ruined me.

Tonight, for some reason, blew me back.

Travel changes us.

Tintagel, UK

Mont St. Michelle, FR

Seminyak, Bali

Even the Korean spa at Incheon airport.

I have been changed by every single place and every nation into which I set foot.

To be denied this, to be denied the access to visit and learn from other places, to experience beauty and wisdom and food— OMG food— and conversation and connection around the planet, is one of the unforgivable crimes of Trump.

We are all connected.

I miss the sense of that.

I miss it deeply.