Dear friends,
An article this weekend suggested that commercial airline travel will not return to normal until 2023. I’m pretty sure many of us will be traveling before then, but when?
I suspect that 2021 will see air travel in the U.S. starting to move closer to normal; albeit with a lot of restrictions and testing protocols. But until there’s a vaccine or a nearly fool-proof way to assess travelers’ exposure to the virus, how will countries working hard to limit the spread of the virus be able to limit its reintroduction inside their borders? It is unrealistic to expect “self-quarantines” for any appreciable period of time and it’s too great a risk to worry about being quarantined before re-entering the U.S. My hunch is that overseas travel will be a rare experience through 2021, when reliable safety and testing protocols can be established.
Until then, air travel in the U.S. will be more difficult but probably less crowded, while business will adjust and we will be happy traveling by car.
LET’S ALL CHILL A BIT AND TRAVEL
In the meantime, there are lots of options for “getting far away” virtually. Here are meditation and yoga classes from far away:
Some Stretch (not stress…) from the Far East with Six Senses:…Dorelal Singh, head of yoga for Six Senses hotels does a detoxification session: https://www.facebook.com/SixSenses/videos/266239414404652/?vh=e
Ten Minute Morning Stretch from Canada with Butterfield & Robinson: https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithkassandra/featured?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVRJNU9EYzFOREl3TkdWayIsInQiOiJuZUpHeWJ5N2ZGZnlLTGh5c3d5VkZSUkc0TkgrbzRLUmhOUjhob1JsaXdEeGJxZmxTUkpaRHFHUXpDKzRzV3dSNWNWTWpXVmdFVEI2TGRtSTdYdVBXV0dsVUlvUzJTd1JKMWozQXR6NzVvYlo4QjViVmVSejg5T1RvV3hkbDZmRyJ9
And here are a few ways to virtually travel:
Travel to the Andes in this six part documentary series on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81154549
And if you are looking to see icebergs, try this out. It’s pretty cool, as you can “find” icebergs on a map of the Eastern Canadian shore: https://icebergfinder.com/map/@-56.12713336944581,50.11657432265236,17z/CgRiYm94KpIBCg4IABoIubrDNbzf5S96AFosMTg5NS13bC05YWFhMWFhMS1jZmM2LTQ5NjQtODU1MC00ZjFkY2VjMDg2MjZyAGpMMkpbLTU2LjEzMjUwODUxNjMxMTY1LDUwLjExNTgxMDY3ODAwMTQ5NSwtNTYuMTE3MjczNTY5MTA3MDYsNTAuMTIwODYwMTM4MjM1XXoCAAA%3D
Here’s a three minute virtual reality tour of Japan: https://icebergfinder.com/map/@-56.12713336944581,50.11657432265236,17z/CgRiYm94KpIBCg4IABoIubrDNbzf5S96AFosMTg5NS13bC05YWFhMWFhMS1jZmM2LTQ5NjQtODU1MC00ZjFkY2VjMDg2MjZyAGpMMkpbLTU2LjEzMjUwODUxNjMxMTY1LDUwLjExNTgxMDY3ODAwMTQ5NSwtNTYuMTE3MjczNTY5MTA3MDYsNTAuMTIwODYwMTM4MjM1XXoCAAA%3D
Finally, Google Earth offers virtual tours of 30 World Heritage Sites: https://earth.google.com/web/@24.27907103,64.87953145,12.15713829a,18782599.89749163d,35y,0.00000008h,0t,0r/data=Ci4SLBIgMTA1NDZmMzhmZGM3MTFlNmEyN2MxYjMxZWFiNDNjN2QiCG92ZXJ2aWV3
SPORTS AS A WINDOW TO AN ERA
Some books I’ve suggested before few touched on baseball (One Summer by Bill Bryson, about the year 1927, for example). There are other sports books that tell a story of an era, using the backdrop of a sporting event as a metaphor for that era. Here are a few:
• The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown. As much a novel as a history. The Olympics themselves weren’t earth-shattering, but the book paints a picture of the world in the midst of the rise of Nazism and the days before the war broke out. Great personal interest. One might read this in tandem with Unbroken.
• Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series, by Eliot Asinof. About an era that includes gamblers and the hardscrabble teens.
• The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, by Mark Frost. About a match between two pros and two amateurs that began with a bet.
• Ball Four, by Jim Bouton, about the 1969 season. Bouton made a bigger splash as a writer than as a baseball player…
• Levels of the Game, by John McPhee. About the 1968 U.S. Open. I don’t really follow tennis and I haven’t read it—but it’s by the great John McPhee (of the New Yorker and Annals of the Former World fame).
• Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand. A classic that mustn’t be missed. She also wrote the powerful Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resistance and Redemption, the story of Louis Zamperini (athlete, war hero, USC alumnus). That she wrote these books from her own home, often unable to get out of bed due to chronic fatigue syndrome, is a remarkable in and of itself.
MENTAL HEALTH AND SATISFACTION OF PUZZLES
Julie Robinson, thanks for passing along this article from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/why-solving-puzzles-feels-so-satisfying-especially-during-a-quarantine/2020/05/03/b87ac636-8bda-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html
MORGAN LIBRARY
The Morgan Library in New York is a remarkable place to visit if (and when) you visit New York. Housed in the Morgan townhouse, it is a trip into the gilded age of old New York, when many of these homes lined the avenues. And it has a great website that allows a virtual tour until you can visit in person: https://www.themorgan.org/morgan-connected
Here’s a Google virtual tour of the library itself and the art and objects inside: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-morgan-library-museum
Finally, much on the current exhibition of The Book of Ruth: Medieval to Modern, including views of the book and conversations about it. The documentary at the end is the best part of this: https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/book-of-ruth
Enjoy the day!
Glenn
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