Taking off
One of a set of "architectural theory" illustrations by Arthur Skizhali-Weiss
Coming up very soon, my family and I will be taking a long time off to travel through Europe for a month. Travel has always been something we enjoy, but this trip is a little bigger than our usual ones. Not only will we be traveling to multiple destinations for the entire month, I'm also taking the entire month off from work without conjoining a vacation to a work-trip. Aside from the stress of actually planning the trip, packing, finances, cleaning, and the other things that go into it, I think about what travel itself does to me, and especially what it does to my kids. I agree with this quote from Anthony Bourdain:
Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you.
His show No Reservations (not to be confused with the romantic comedy sharing its name), excelled not only because of Bourdain's magnetic charm and insight, but because it consistently showed him changing. It gave the sense of Bourdain really interacting with a place instead of just commentating about it. It's easier for me to see how travel is changing my kids because I watch them grow up, but I'm also thinking about how to vocalize or capture what it changes in me. What do you think—has there been a place to which you've traveled that's changed you? How did it change you?
Delilah sent me this short article on why used books make the best travel souvenirs, with which I wholeheartedly agree. A physical book isn't only the words on the page, but also the smell, the touch, the look, and even the nostalgia that surfaces when considering the book later down the road. It's also fun to go marginalia-hunting in used bookstores, to find some interesting remnant of the book's past.
Alan Jacobs is teaching a course this year entitled RETRO: How and Why the Past Comes Back. I live nowhere near Baylor and couldn't take the course, but the list of links in the syllabus is worthwhile nevertheless, and could lead to interesting conversations even without the class setting. Have you rekindled affection towards something considered "retro" recently? What drew you towards it?
Cabel Sasser wrote about the intent of artistic designed objects and how "some designers are amazing at imagining things, but not as amazing at imagining them surrounded by the universe." In America, if something looks like it can be climbed, then it surely will be.
As I mentioned at the top of this, I'll be out of town for the next month. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to continue the fortnightly newsletters while I'm out, or if they'll be in a different form (hopefully I'm spending less time on the internet, so definitely fewer links to share.) Regardless, I look forward to catching up when I'm back.