Close your eyes and name all the cities you have been in the last years.
Miami. This is the first city pop into your head. It was beginning of December. Covid was still in the China. So quite far away and it was not scary yet. Nobody was thinking about any world wide lockdown. That was a time. Sunny. Not too hot. Art exhibition around the city. The biggest of the year. Inspiring. You was drinking champagne with your ex boyfriend ex girlfriend. Talking about art and not worrying about anything. Your partner in crime (and father of your kids now) was attending some education events which you was not interested at all. You had all the days for yourself. Now you open your eyes and thinking: probably it was the last time when the days belonged only to you. Funny enough you spent one of them with your ex’s ex. Miami was sunny.
Beirut. Who would think spent Christmas in muslim country when you are christian? Right, Lebanon is 50/50. It was crazy times there. All the protests, army, no money, electricity which is disappearing. You and your partner were sitting in restaurant on the seafront. The waves of the sea were banging and fighting with the windows. It’s impossible to describable the feeling. Electricity gone. So you were sitting in the dark. Only you, your partner, the sound of the sea and your ego who was whispering into your ear: what’s next? You know the answer now – nothing. The hotel you were staying that time doesn’t exist anymore. It was destroyed few months later during the attack.
Dubai. Second Christmas in muslim country. You can be honest and admit – it’s the best. No additional stress of Christmas dinner, turkey or lamb, if everybody would fit around the table. Dubai was about that. No extra stress. And this is city where is no extra stress. Everything is working and it has it all. Your ego was spoiled. The only problem (if it was a problem) was to think: what would you like to do or get?
Open your eyes. Do you still want to continue with cities? Nice, Milan, Key West, Como, Vilnius, St. Helier, Doha, Helsinki, Perpignan, Barcelona, Colchester, Turin, London, Pisa, Luca, Firenze, Oxford, Dallas, Chicago…
At the end of the night – it means nothing. It doesn’t matter how many cities or countries you been. Maybe your ego would be satisfied at some point at some random conversation but that’s it. The crazy idea of travelling and visiting cities is only one – to come back home. And funny enough you know better than anybody else – that home doesn’t exist in geographical location. The home is people.
Close your eyes and ask yourself again who was travelling with you all the time? Who is your home?
Every city counts –
–(r.)
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