Marie Leaves Africa

While I've been off playing reindeer games and staying in a grossly expensive hotel, my dear friend Marie (mariejavins.blogspot.com) has reached the end of her months in Africa, where she went to work on her forthcoming book, No Hurry in Africa, which Seal Press will publish next year.

Because tonight I'm too tired to have a thought of my own, I offer up one of her thoughts:

So, am I ready to go home? I’m ambivalent. Sure, it kind of sucks to live alone and have no friends on an entire continent. . . . But there is still something so gloriously appealing about living on the road, carrying all my possessions from bus to bus, and trusting total strangers to take care of me. Some people simplistically call this lifestyle “freedom.” I’m not sure what I call it. I associate “freedom” with the inability to articulately think beyond a 7th grade level about personal responsibility. So let’s not call it freedom. Let’s just call it fun.