“One can travel this world and see nothing. To achieve understanding it is necessary not to see many things, but to look hard at what you do see.” Giorgio Morandi.

How are you coping without traveling? That’s the question I have been asked most often since Covid-19 forced almost everyone to stay close to home. I returned on February 28th after three weeks in Tokyo, London, and Paris and, apart from one or two short trips to Manhattan, haven’t wandered more than ten miles from home since that day thirteen weeks ago. That’s not likely to change much until the end of August at the earliest. If that proves to be the case, it will be the longest period in more than thirty years that I haven’t stepped on board an airplane.

Do I miss it? In some ways, no. Who could possibly miss long lines at airport security, airline food, weather delays, lost baggage, and 16 hour flights? There’s a lot to be said for discovering or re-discovering the wonderful places just beyond my doorstep. But much is lost in a lock-down. What I miss is that particular and unique type of engagement with family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances that Zoom and other tools can’t hope to replace or emulate. I miss the sensations: the sights, smells, and sounds of places that I had planned to visit in these months – Lilongwe, Beijing, Oslo, or wherever. And I miss the thoughts and feelings that those sights, smells, and sounds would have evoked. That’s what Giorgio Morandi (and others like him who rarely travel) don’t understand. Traveling isn’t about seeing things and places. It’s about the engagement of all the senses and the personal transformations, small and large, that come with that engagement.

Those of us who love to travel will do so again. We might do it differently, but we’ll do it. We’ll most likely do it more carefully and thoughtfully. The pandemic has taught us or reminded us what’s truly valuable and what’s expendable. And what’s top of my travel list when conditions allow me to wander again? London and West Cork. After that let’s take it one precious step at a time.