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Rowan Mangan

Author. Explorer. #Looking for America.

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What is this “America” you speak of?

4 July 2018 45 Comments

I really dig America.

But I haven’t really dug into America. You know? I’ve lived here for a while now, but that time has been spent living in the middle of a forest and so I haven’t exactly saturated myself in the marrow of the culture. (Eww.) No question: ignorance is always a missed opportunity. In my defense, I’ve been busy making a new life and falling in love and other distracting activities, so up to now I’ve given myself a pass.

That ends today.

It’s my intention to go on living in this country until the good Lord strikes me down where I stand. So it’s time I learned… um, where it is I stand, exactly. Time I learned a little something about this adopted country of mine.

I’m writing this on July 4th, 2018, sitting in my home on the California ranch where I live with my cute and unconventional family unit. In less than two weeks, the cute family and I will embark on a Really Big Adventure. We’re moving waaaaay across the country, to the eastern tip of Pennsylvania. So basically, from living 30 minutes from the literal sand-and-water West Coast to 60 minutes from the literal mafia-victim-bones-and-icy-sludge East Coast.

We’re a bunch of crazy kids, my people, and big moves is how we do.

Along with my resourceful, goodlooking wife, I’m going to drive the 3000-odd miles from California to Pennsylvania. Our goal is to do this in five days. Because we’re zany like that. Our travel companions will be Mister Bilbo Baggins of Bag End and Miss Claire Bear Fair-of-Hair. The rest of the unit will fly and meet us there. I can’t vouch for other people’s choices.

Me, I can’t wait to steer Sappho the trusty Subaru through the floor of the flyover states and get me a taste of America.

AMERICA, y’all.

I should be able to at least glimpse it out the window, right?


At any rate, this blog is where I’m going to share my observations and ideas about my new country as I tune in. The hermit years are over. I’m coming to look for America.

I’ll use this blog to chart my unfurling discovery of the country and its people, and invite you to help me out where I’m still in the dark. I’m hoping that my American friends and my American strangers will leap in to share your experience of the country: culture, language, idiosyncrasies, weird and wonderful food, freaky antiquated traditions. Everything!

I’ll be writing about America’s sublime and America’s ridiculous as they appear through my naive little Aussie eyes.

That said, this is not a blog about politics. Two reasons: one, it would fill the sky and there would be nothing else to write about. I want to discuss unity and quirk and humanity wherever I encounter it, not get bogged down in divisiveness and despair. The second reason for no politics is that, as I mentioned, I want to stay here in the US forever — and that’s not yet in the bag, folks. So for those who know me as a political animal, read between the lines and continue to love me.

I want to publish this first blog post on the Fourth of July. But before I do so, I want to tell you how my self-education is going in my own home so far.

Me: Tell me about the first Fourth of July.

Wife: Well, it was just after Jesus died, I guess.

I would love it if you would come along with me on this literal and figurative journey. Please read and weigh in and contradict my suppositions. Please help me look for America. I know I left it in here somewhere.

Question: Americans, please answer in the comments. If there were one thing I absolutely needed to know to get by in the US, what would it be?

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Filed Under: News, The Novel Tagged With: adventures, education, family, july4th

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Comments

  1. Mary Walker says

    5 July 2018 at 12:48 am

    Like an outsiders guide to USA? Just what I need. Cheers, Ro!

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 12:51 am

      Thanks, Mary! (And for being my first-ever comment!) I hope so. It’s going to be an interesting exercise in testing my observations against others’ experience. Hoping I can just blurt and say “tell me where I’m wrong” – !!

      Reply
  2. River LaMoreaux says

    5 July 2018 at 1:23 am

    The US is an odd patchwork of place and subcultures. Each region has its own designs, shape, flavors, mores, and connection to landscape. Enjoy the flow of difference as you drive through.

    Hit the local diners and listen to local conversations. Pay attention to regional subtleties in road signage, what people are selling, how politics show up, differences in the landscape and how subcultures inhabit those differences.

    I’d also get a map of the physiographic regions because these major shifts in regional landscapes create shifts in subcultures.

    Enjoy! Don’t rush through. Stop at things that seem interesting or beautiful.

    Oh, and if given a choice between interstate and a back highway, choose the latter. So says the geographer.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:45 pm

      Ooh, this is fabulous! Thanks, River. I would love to spend a month doing this trip, but we really only have five or six days, so unfortunately there will be some haste involved. Boy, I really love these ideas, though. They are in my notes. Thank you, thank you!

      Reply
  3. Steph says

    5 July 2018 at 1:26 am

    If there was one thing – just one thing – GOSH. That’s a toughie Ro. But here goes – geography is destiny.

    So all of those wide open spaces reflect the distance between us and inside of you.

    I’m curious to see how you encounter this in the world. I’m grateful to be following you on your journey. Talk to strangers and have fun!

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:31 pm

      Oh, how lovely! Thank you! I intend to talk to ALL the strangers. Whether they like it or not. x

      Reply
  4. Martha Beck says

    5 July 2018 at 1:27 am

    Can’t wait to see the continent through your bleary eyeballs and quirky brain! Onward!

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:27 pm

      Thank you, sugarplum!

      Reply
  5. Sean Mangan says

    5 July 2018 at 1:45 am

    Awaiting further developments with considerable interest. Sure hope this blog doesn’t affect the progress of any novels you might have in mind to write. XXXX

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:26 pm

      Hoping it will grease all the rusty engine parts and get all the words flowing! Thanks, Papa! xoxoxo

      Reply
  6. Sarah F says

    5 July 2018 at 2:56 am

    So pumped to hear about the States as seen through your eyes Ro. I’m buckled in.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:23 pm

      Woohoo! Thanks! I went to see if WIS was still active the other day, and did some back-reading for inspiration.

      Reply
  7. Lara says

    5 July 2018 at 3:16 am

    You need to know how to say hello and greet people in different areas. For example, you can get do overly friendly better Georgia than Maine. The Bible Belt deserves its rap (I lived there) so praising the Lord for the weather is allowed, but would get you serious side-eye in Philly. (Mostly don’t say hello in New Jersey, at all.) The middle states are reeeaalllyy big and empty; you can take your time there saying hello.

    Also the mountains are very different as you go. The Rockies are sharp and purposeful and intensely present. The Appalachians are soft, like old worry stones.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:30 pm

      Damn, Lara. I feel like I just want you to write this blog. That’s gorgeous. And the greeting thing is a hot track. I might try out different things in different places, play the foreigner card, see what happens! I’m as interested in getting it wrong as getting it right! “…like old worry stones.” Holding this in my heart today. And you.

      Reply
  8. Carol says

    5 July 2018 at 5:09 am

    I will read with interest as I’m still recovering from my first sojourn on US shores, possibly because the first conversation that hit my ears as I got off the plane was one woman, who worked at the airport, telling another woman customer to ‘f*** off you *c***. It was such a shock. Pouring blessings your way Rowan as you show up here. Xoxo

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:23 pm

      Right! One of thing things that’s been in my mind is the cultural comfort with conflict, especially low-grade conflict between strangers. (What you’re describing is obviously a bit more intense!) Lots of love to you, Carol. I will be replying to your email VERY SOON! xooxo

      Reply
  9. Uncle Jim says

    5 July 2018 at 10:09 am

    General Custer led the 7th Calvary

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:22 pm

      On it! Thanks!

      Reply
  10. James Healy says

    5 July 2018 at 10:46 am

    Earlier this week I said something like this to Ange, “Hey, I think Rowan might be moving Pennsylvania. I’d love to hear more about why and how she finds it. Sounds like a big move from California”

    Seems like you heard me 🙂

    Enjoy the road trip, and I can’t wait to hear how it goes.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:19 pm

      … And I thought, “I bet James wants to hear all about my trip!”

      Thanks so much, it is LOVELY to see your face and name. See you in Melbs soon!

      Reply
  11. Trish Hammond says

    5 July 2018 at 4:39 pm

    Will love eacorting you on your journey. Thrilling times ahead.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 7:35 pm

      Thank you so much, Trish! I will love having your traveling expertise along for the ride. (Should be less eventful than some of your India drives?!) xo

      Reply
  12. Freyja says

    5 July 2018 at 5:02 pm

    Only stay at places with y. steam box hook ups! (and all will be well)

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 7:35 pm

      Haha, thanks! 🙂

      Reply
  13. Liz Wiltzen says

    5 July 2018 at 5:42 pm

    Oh I am waiting with bated breath to see what you see Ro! Despite being Canadian, I find every time I am in conversation about the current escapades in the States, I say ‘We, us, our…’, so I am weighing in as a Canmercan.

    Here’s what I know about the place – there are countless good hearts beating in that vast country. I’m building my own collection and my world is elevated because of them. Can’t wait to hear about your growing collection. 🙂

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 7:35 pm

      Thank you, Liz. I’m absolutely convinced of the presence of those hearts (well, I’m already surrounded by them!), and in fact that’s really what this project is. Finding them, sharing their stories. I’d love for you to come along with me. xo

      Reply
      • Liz Wiltzen says

        6 July 2018 at 12:41 am

        I will be there, like gum on you shoe!

        Reply
        • rowan says

          6 July 2018 at 8:15 pm

          <3

          Reply
  14. Tricia Elliott says

    5 July 2018 at 8:58 pm

    Ro, I can’t wait to see our country through your eyes! When I think about how to respond to your question, a BK quote comes up: we all love you, we just don’t know it yet.

    Any chance you’re driving near Minnesota?

    Reply
    • rowan says

      6 July 2018 at 8:17 pm

      Thank you, dear Tricia! That’s a great feeling.

      Alas, we’ll be driving pretty far south of Minnesota… are you there? I thought you were in Alaska.

      Reply
      • Tricia Elliott says

        6 July 2018 at 9:57 pm

        I am in Alaska, for the moment. Next week my girls and I will be in MN visiting family and friends (I grew up in Duluth). It’s an endearing place — I expect my accent will come back and we’ll eat hot dish and jello salad and generally avoid overt emotional expression… I exaggerate, but there’s some truth to all this. Anyhow, I figured you’d be taking a more southerly route, but I had to ask

        Reply
        • rowan says

          7 July 2018 at 5:57 pm

          Ha! This is great. I hope you have an enjoyable trip… and don’t shirk on the jello salad. It helps to deal with the emotional emptiness… 😀

          Wish we could see you. It’ll happen at some point, I am 100% sure.

          Reply
  15. Rebecca Tolin says

    5 July 2018 at 10:05 pm

    Act is if you love America no matter what! It seems to be an American.
    Fun and zany travels to you and the fam, Ro! This patchwork of peculiar states is lucky to have you. XO

    Reply
    • Rebecca Tolin says

      5 July 2018 at 10:07 pm

      It seems to be an American thing, that is!

      Reply
      • rowan says

        6 July 2018 at 8:17 pm

        Ha! Love it. Thanks, Rebecca!

        Reply
  16. Sean Mangan says

    5 July 2018 at 10:53 pm

    John Prine. Mark Twain. John Hartford. Annie Proulx. Ben Franklin. Will Rogers. Eugene Debs. Ursula K LeGuin. Raymond Chandler. Donna Tartt. Muddy Waters. Dave Van Ronk. John Steinbeck. Robert Pirsig. Ernest Hemingway, in spite of everything. Clarence Darrow. Bob Dylan, in spite of everything. Toni Morrison. Jesse Winchester. Aretha Franklin. Janis Joplin. Jack Kerouac. Ella Fitzgerald. Billie Holiday. Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks. Richard Feynman. Buckminster Fuller. Kris Kristofferson. Guy Clark. Bonnie Raitt. Emily Dickinson. Dorothy Parker. Randy Newman. Jack London. Bessie Smith. Harper Lee. Barbara Kingsolver. Peter Matthiessen. Taj Mahal. Utah Phillips. Gillian Welch. Gary Snyder. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Herman Melville. Betty Friedan. Joyce Carol Oates. Charles Bukowski. Townes Van Zandt. Kate Wolf. How can you not love a country like that?

    Reply
    • rowan says

      6 July 2018 at 8:18 pm

      You make a solid point. Well argued.

      I couldn’t, it looks like.

      Reply
  17. Sean Mangan says

    5 July 2018 at 10:55 pm

    Whoops. Lyle Lovett.

    Reply
  18. Kat says

    6 July 2018 at 9:59 pm

    Download the Hamilton cast album. It’s good road trip music and there’s a lot of America up in it.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      7 July 2018 at 5:56 pm

      Ooooh, fab tip! Hopefully we’ll get to see it soon in New York. Is it easy to follow the album without having seen the musical?

      Reply
      • Kat says

        9 July 2018 at 12:09 am

        I’d say it’s easier to follow on the album than in person, given that the theater I saw it in was not acoustically optimized for fast rapping. There is really only one part of the stage production left out of the album, so you’re good. Do monitor in the second act whether you can drive well while weeping, however!

        Reply
        • rowan says

          9 July 2018 at 2:32 am

          This is excellent advice. I’m so excited! Ready to weep and LEARN.

          Reply
  19. Paul Werner says

    14 July 2018 at 6:06 am

    Keep it coming

    Reply
  20. Cid says

    11 May 2019 at 2:32 pm

    Wish I had read this before I met you- I would have asked you to tell me all about your cross-country road trip… I love adventure stories!

    As for something I think you need to live in America? I good sense of self, which you have 😉 I’m not sure what else—I live in California afterall!

    Reply
    • Ali says

      25 October 2019 at 7:50 pm

      I’m so embarrassed as I feel terribly nosy and I love you all individually but I’ve been trying to figure out the family set up. I ***think*** I get it!? Anyways, Godspeed all. Xxxx

      Reply

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You can listen to the first four episodes right now (link in bio). Hear us muse on everything from happiness and productivity to self-doubt and creativity. With lots of ridiculous accents, puns, and wild tangents to accompany the insights and advice.⠀
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Marty and Henry. Lighthearted encounters with the Marty and Henry. Lighthearted encounters with the occult are a mainstay of our family visits. #funwithtarot @julie.arizona
This is the feeling, trudging back to the office a This is the feeling, trudging back to the office after dinner, after a day’s work, to keep at it. When new material means I’m back in a first-draft space I thought I’d left behind long months ago. In the end the only way to rediscover momentum is to let the story take the wheel. I’m not the one who can do it. As @cherylstrayed points out, one does not simply *write* a *book*. And yet we do.

But I have something going for me. I’ve met this story. I know its feel, its face, its accent and its eccentricities. If I show up, if I step back, the story will drive.

On a good day, right? I know.

So we go, writers. So we go. Onward to the far side of defeat, where the story continues.
Working today in a patch of wintery sunlight. Grat Working today in a patch of wintery sunlight. Grateful for peace. Grateful for work that I can do lying down. Grateful to have work. Grateful for generous and understanding colleagues. Grateful for sunlight. Grateful for these funky socks @kegerdes brought me from Norway. #gratitudeisall
Yesterday I wrote about accepting limitations. Tod Yesterday I wrote about accepting limitations. Today, as a more upbeat follow-up, I want to celebrate stillness for a moment, and the honest-to-god magic that it contains.
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This song, “Love Itself,” is sacred. SACRED. I have volumes of things to say about the nineteen dimensions that Cohen slides into every line. But in honor of his gift for simplicity, I thought I’d just say one small thing.
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These lines describe an experience of being utterly transported—in a moment of stillness—into the Everything. “Formless circumstance”—I mean, can you guys even? It’s too exquisite.
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Those of us who have experienced deep stillness know the wonder that is to be found there. The way that when you get still enough, it begins to move again… but differently. You move, and it moves, and the galaxies spin and you perceive that the stillness contains it all and is contained by it all.
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Talk about tumbled up.
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When I was little, my imaginary friend was called Still. No idea why (I was a weird kid), but Still was pretty good company. I continue to think that playing with Still is probably a good idea. There’s such a funny cultural tendency to RUNRUNRUN and DODODO and then, if we’re lucky, to SITSITSIT (if you’re one of those people—and I am!—with a meditation app). We don’t glide in and out of things, or at least, I don’t. But maybe I could.
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Sitting with these Leonard Cohen lines tonight, I feel the ongoing desire to honor stillness when it wants an hour with me, or when my body or soul requires it. But I also want to seek out the small moments when I look up and notice dust motes dancing on the air. I want to give pure stillness a breath or two then as well, to remember the galaxies spinning inside me before returning to my email.
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At any rate, this: May we all have all the stillness we need. May we rest in it and may we play in it, too.
Today is a danger-slow-down day. I felt it first t Today is a danger-slow-down day. I felt it first this morning when I had to sit on the edge of the bath after climbing out of it. The recognition didn’t come in words, just with an “uh-oh” sound inside my head. Some of you know what I’m talking about, when the mind’s remote control for directing the body seems to be running out of batteries.

I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome seven years ago, but I’ve had it for decades. I’m luckier than many, because the illness waxes and wanes in me. When I push too long against that uh-oh feeling, I crash. Some crashes are small, and I just have to take it easy for a few days to get back on track. But a bad crash can leave me virtually bedridden for months, where just the thought of climbing the stairs to bed makes me cry.

Danger-slow-down days are never convenient. For me, the temptation is huge to deny it’s happening and push my shoulder hard against the wheel of the day’s tasks. I won’t lie, I tried that today. Until mid-afternoon, at least, when I literally crumpled. And then remembered, and told myself for the millionth time that the danger is not a freaking joke, Ro.

And it is dangerous to push myself past my limits. For sure. But I realize as I lie here, finally flat on my back, that the greater danger is making an enemy of my body. Or of creating a false separation between my weak body and my strong will in the first place. It’s all me in here.

I love my work. I love Getting Shit Done, I love all my creative side projects that I also want to play in. I love moving my body.

But today my work is to lie on my back and accept that my physical energy is like the seasons: just happening inside me, exactly the way the first snow flurry happened outside a few hours ago. Today is a wintery day, that’s all.

So my work for now is to love the feel of the soft duvet. It’s to love chatting with my beloveds and staring at the fire. It’s to love letting go of expectations as well as tasks. And to try and love the person with the courage to let it all go. For today, at least.
I think about rivers all the time. In my novel, th I think about rivers all the time. In my novel, the protagonist is sort of haunted by a river. In a… good way. Point being, I love me a river. There’s something to me about running water that’s uniquely beautiful on the planet. The sight of a stream rolling over stones, the sound of it. Even the smell of damp earth. I mean, guys—River Phoenix. There’s just nothing not-beautiful here.

So you take a beautiful thing like a river, and then you add in these lines from John O’Donohue. And then, if you’re me, you just stop. For a long moment. When poetry—language—creates silence, that’s some kind of alchemy. O’Donohue had  game.

You know what I love most about this? “Carried by the surprise.” It says to me that when we thrive in the the face of all that’s uncertain in life, it’s not in spite of the unknown. It says that we are actually SUSTAINED by what we don’t know. That it’s the mystery that’s holding us in the darkness.
What sweetness to wake up to on a Sunday morning f What sweetness to wake up to on a Sunday morning from these beloved dorks. As winter closes in, our sprawls start giving way to snuggles. We spontaneously begin moving closer to each other, closer to the fire. After the expansiveness of the warm months, I love this closeness. Love the blankies. Love the robes. Love these kind, furry souls.
FOR ITS OWN SAKE Under what conditions do we find FOR ITS OWN SAKE  Under what conditions do we find the courage to put our voices into the world? And with what intention? Can we justify making things just for the glory of their own existence and no other reason?

If what we make helps no one, can we justify it? If it isn’t beautiful, can we justify it?
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What I’m wondering is, what’s the human calculus of “for its own sake”?
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And what about us, ourselves? Simply to live by giving what we are: is that enough? If we just show up in truth, is that tantamount to mercy? To beauty?
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And perhaps: if we dare to offer our voices purely for their own sake, are we also opening ourselves up to the possibility of taking part in a greater intentionality? Is that why the air shimmers around us when we do it?
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I think, maybe. Maybe so.
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This masterpiece of a song, which you should all listen to, begins “Up up up up up up points the spires of the steeple/ But God’s work isn’t done by God, it’s done by people.” Is that how the calculus functions? Is “God’s work” (whatever we imagine that to be) achieved by those living life for its own sake?
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So today I offer these exquisite lines, which have touched me deeply over the years. I offer these tangled questions and crooked maybes from an unexpected airport hotel in San Francisco. I offer gratitude to those of you who connect with me here and make me feel like a freak among magnificent freaks.
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And finally, I offer thanks to the beautiful stranger who called across a room to me in California this last weekend to tell me to keep posting Ani lyrics. ❤️
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(Song: “Up up up up up up” from the album of the same name, Ani Difranco (c) 1999)
It’s been such a wonderful gift to spend a few d It’s been such a wonderful gift to spend a few days back on the California central coast. This place was the setting for so many huge changes in my life, and I will always be grateful for it. I mean, peeps, I’m literally watching dolphins roll by in the ocean while I tap this out on my phone.
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In a few minutes Marty and I head to the airport and begin the trek back East, to our deep green forest with its deer and foxes and chipmunks. What a life. What rich and generous blessings.
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More and more I believe that wherever we go, we’re always heading homeward.
I often censor myself when I feel that I’ve said I often censor myself when I feel that I’ve said something different in the past. Or I suspect I might have. Or I feel like I’ve changed my mind at some point. All these worries shut me down because I don’t want to feel like I’m lying now, or I was lying then. But of course, that’s bonkers. We are all a million people a day. It’s not untrue to change, it’s not untrue to be complex. My only fidelity is to my sense of truth.
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If you feel like you contradict yourself, I would suggest only this: did it feel honest when you said that thing? Does it feel honest now to say THIS thing? Our sense of truth is so much smarter than our brains. Brains divide, while truth unites. We’re fine, loves. We just contain multitudes is all.
A surprising number of costumes in airport land to A surprising number of costumes in airport land today, but here’s the clear winner. This is Quinn. He’s a wizard. You can’t see his cape in this shot, but it’s as spectacular as his hat. Quinn is also a wizard because he’s a PTSD service dog, and after a couple of minutes playing with him and his lovely human, I came to suspect that he has a great deal of healing magics. My heart exploded all over the departure gate: my contribution to the Halloween spirit. 🎃
Yesterday I got my first American driver’s licen Yesterday I got my first American driver’s license. Added to my Green Card, which arrived last May, I seem to be becoming an increasingly legit immigrant. I love it.

Of course, it’s impossible not to be all too aware that these documents and the privileges they confer are out of reach for so many people with the same basic wishes as me: to live and work and receive medical care and love my family in this beautiful fever dream of a country. (Many much more deserving than me. Many even prepared to learn the rules of NFL football.) I don’t know why America sent for me. It came as a bloody surprise to me, let me tell you. But this is home now, this place that’s mystifying and generous, confusing and exhilarating and sometimes frightening... all indications, after all, that it’s inhabited by human beings.
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I believe so deeply that the symphony is still unfinished. I believe that all the best parts of America, those which I’ve come to love fiercely, will outlive its worst and will prevail again. I have to believe this, and while I’m waiting and working, I’m going to keep listening to the music.
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(Thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda for this lyric and to the musical Hamilton for giving me permission to fall head over heels with ‘Murka after decades of deep suspicion.)
THIS FILM IS MY LIFE’S WORK. Critics are calling THIS FILM IS MY LIFE’S WORK. Critics are calling it “heartwarming”... “a compelling coming of age tale”... “by turns heartbreaking and devilishly funny”... “a parable for our times.” It is entitled simply: Stay Hydrated.
This is me at 19, clutching a boarding pass from M This is me at 19, clutching a boarding pass from Melbourne to Heathrow, leaving for my first Grand Solo Adventure. It’s me three years later, returning to make a life in an Irish town called Cork, which I would fall in love with and in which I would would fall in love. This is me at 25, off to delicious Italy and exquisite Turkey and glittering Croatia. Off to venture alone through India for three intense, cacophonous, color-drenched, magical months. It’s me at 28, leaving to volunteer for a year in Bangkok; preparing to be FOREIGN in a constant, daily, inescapable way that would change this white girl’s perspective on otherness forever.
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I’ve forced myself to be alone in foreign places since I was a teenager, working crappy jobs between trips to save money and doing the usual waitressing and bartending overseas when I could. I traded security for experience time and time again. It’s not for everyone, I know. But this song reminds me that it is utterly, absolutely, for me.
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And so… these lines are also me in January 2016, a 35-year-old woman who should probably be a settled-down grownup by now, but who instead is in line at a departure gate, clutching a boarding pass that says MEL-LAX. A 35-year-old woman who is embarking on something more enormous than she is yet capable of imagining. About to cross an entirely new horizon.

Solo travel is exhilarating, terrifying and fascinating by turns. It has opened me up to selfless human generosity in a thousand moments. It’s exposed me to secret beauties large and small, always breathtaking. It has given me friends in a dozen countries who cram my heart to this day. It’s taught me a self-reliance that I know I can call on when shit gets real. But travel of any kind is an education, always helping us learn new ways of being human on this odd little planet of ours.
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So, let me never stop abandoning comfort in favor of adventure. Dear GOD, let me never travel without WD40 (and gaffer tape, more crucially). Let me stay forever hell-bent on reinvention, since isn’t that all there is, after all: evolve to evolve to evolve? Keep me always in huge humility. And let me be in it for IT—for it, only.
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