All in Writing

The Longest Day of the Year

It seemed improbable on this rainy Summer Solstice that we’d even be able to get close enough to see it, as all gatherings at Stonehenge were cancelled due to coronavirus. With a bit of madness that comes with three months of feeling stir-crazy, and since I’d never seen the henge in person, we went anyway.

Puerto de La Cruz

Bleary eyed from lack of sleep and still not quite believing I was actually traveling internationally again after such a prolonged lockdown, the first glimpses of La Gomera, the second-smallest of the main islands came into view out of my window. With puffy clouds covering the hills, it looked on first glance like the island was covered in snow.

Uprooted

I followed my heart to Bristol, England after two years of long-distance dating and nuptials at the Chicago courthouse in December. My spouse visa arrived in my passport at the end of February, before anyone knew how strange 2020 would be.

Another Philosopher

Hannah Arendt, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism (among many others), was an expert on power, fascism, and communist revolutions. Raised as a secular, progressive Jew and having escaped Nazi Germany after being detained by the Gestapo for researching antisemitism, she spent the post-war years studying why Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini rose to power, why they were so popular despite their atrocities.