Time to sign off. I'm still needing to put a gargantuan effort into keeping calm in the moment, and keeping my anxiety in check. Everything will be fine if I just concentrate on keeping calm in each moment, and mindfully move forward on this path.
So many thoughts and issues rise up to overwhelm in this going forth again.
It’s the coming back, the return, which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we’ve come back to where we were, only where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become. Which, after all, is why we left.
- Bernard Stevens, "Northern Exposure"
I've come back more times than I care to have, and still I keep going forth. What am I running from? What am I running to? What am I doing on this lonely road? I thought I was killing myself, but now I'm not.
A lot has changed from all this going forth and coming back. And now my feeling is you have to keep getting better, you have to keep progressing, keep transforming. The Jedi training never ends, even as Luke confidently enters Jabba the Hut's lair to rescue Princess Leia.
I have to keep asking, "Is this place better for my having been here?", and as I move on, hope that I can do the same thing wherever I'm going. Even though San Francisco and anyone I met there is no better for my having been there. Not the point. Not the point. It's not?
Ironically, I think my family in New Jersey is better for my having been here. Even my parents, ultimately will have been better for my having been here. Weird for me to think so. I'm such a different person than I was just a year ago. That, I suppose, is the point of going forth.
So tired of all this travelling
So many miles away from home
I keep moving to be stable
Free to wander, free to roam
"Sky Blue" - Peter Gabriel
 |
| Feb. 21, 9:27 p.m. - airport lounge. I'm trusting my camera timestamps more than Blogger's, which may be my fault in failing to adjust settings or Blogger having trouble dealing with time-zone hopping. Vagaries of the digital age. I left on February 21. |
 |
| "Feb. 22, 5:11 p.m." - Somewhere high in the air, some hours into the flight, probably before I adjusted my camera's clock setting, which I probably did after arrival. |
 |
| Feb. 23, 6:17 a.m. - approaching Taiwan. who the hell cares if the time stamp is correct or not? |
 |
| 6:29 a.m. - it's a credible time stamp, meaning I adjusted it to Taiwan time before taking these shots. |
 |
| Feb 23, 6:59 a.m. - On the ground. erm, meaning it took 30 minutes from being above the clouds in the air to landing and processed through the airport for this shot? Apparently so, the discrepancy wouldn't be a factor of adjusting camera settings. And this shot might be after de-planing but pre-airport processing (immigration and customs). |
 |
| 7:38 a.m. - Taoyuan Int'l Airport. A view that would become very familiar for many years hence arriving in Taiwan, leading to the bus terminal to catch a coach to Taipei proper. |
1. Fuck and Run (Liz Phair)
2. All Hands On the Bad One (Sleater-Kinney)
3. Art Decade (David Bowie)
4. Symphony No. 38, III. Finale (Presto) (Mozart)
5. Get Out of My House (Kate Bush)
6. You Won't Be an Orphan for Long ("Annie")
7. Symphony No. 24, III. Allegro (Mozart)
8. Thin Air (Pearl Jam)
9. Dose of Thunder (The Replacements)
10. it (live) (Genesis)
