Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus (A GeoEx eBook)

Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus

An Unexpected Adventure

to do everything I can to make our planet a better place. * * * The idea to gather these pandemic-inspired pieces into a collection bloomed as organically as the pieces themselves. As the end of 2020 approached, to prepare my final column, I reread all the pieces we had published during the year. I was struck by the arc of their journey, and by how they seemed to innocently capture the spiritual pilgrimage of the year. It seemed to me that while all of these pieces were available individually to anyone online, putting them together accorded a momentum and resonance to the collection that enhanced the power of each one and the poignancy of the whole. I suggested this to my colleagues at GeoEx, and they lent their wholehearted support—and their expertise and talents. The result is this beautiful collection, exquisitely photo-edited and designed by Jenny Velasco and expertly edited by Katie Stoyka. This collection would simply not exist without them and all of my cherished colleagues at Geographic Expeditions, who have been extraordinarily encouraging of these columns from the very beginning. I am happy from my core to be part of this wonderful company and family. I also want to thank my global tribe of travel writing and editing friends and colleagues, whose camaraderie has sustained me throughout this challenging year, and who buoy and inspire me in both the best and the worst of times. As always, I want to thank my family for all the wonder, delight, grace, and love we have shared throughout our lives; these have grown even deeper and more connecting through the challenges of the past year. And finally, I want to thank all of the readers who have taken the time to respond to these columns with your own reflections and tales. I cannot adequately convey how much your notes have meant to me and to all of us at GeoEx. Through some

Reading these pieces from start to finish now is like a compressed time-capsule of the evolution of the pandemic and our response to it. In the early stories, my feeling is that this may last half a year or through the end of the year at most. I feel certain that come spring 2021, I’ll be celebrating under the cherry blossoms in Japan once more. As the essays continue, that feeling becomes less and less assured, and the sense that we don’t know what the timeline of the pandemic will be grows—and the multi-layered lessons that this suspended state bestows deepen and evolve. Now, as I write these words, near the end of January 2021, I don’t have a clear sense of when we will be able to resume widespread, free-spirited travel again. At present, while more than 60 countries are welcoming U.S. travelers, many of these have significant visitor restrictions in place, and the pandemic is far from being under control in most countries. So my crystal ball is still cloudy. But there is good news. Effective vaccines have been developed and are being distributed. Would-be travelers are being inoculated. A new sense of the critical importance of clearheaded guidelines and communal resolve is emanating from our government. By this time next year, I believe that popular travel will have recommenced internationally as well as nationally. I am hopeful that travel will begin on a broad scale even before then, by the autumn of 2021—but I am also mindful that a widespread, coordinated, and continued effort will be needed to contain the pandemic on a planetary scale. We shall see! For now, reviewing in my mind the roller-coaster ride of the past year, I am grateful beyond words for all the sacrifices that so many individuals have made to keep our country and our planet functioning as well as it has been. I am mourning the inconceivable, and inconsolable, loss of so many precious lives. And I am re-committing myself to live with resolve and intent,

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