About ten years ago, an Internet acquaintance came to visit New England. He was a San Franciscan, very funny and witty (on the Internet, at least), and wanted to see Boston.
And he had a list.
He wanted to see the State House. He wanted to see Mother Goose’s gravesite. He wanted to see the Old North Church.
Literally. See them. I still remember: we walked in front of the State House, and he said “check.”
See, he’d asked Internet “friends” what he should see in Boston. They’d volunteered ideas, and he had made a list. And he was literally just “seeing” them. Mostly from a distance.
Recently, on Facebook, I saw this thing called “100 Places To See Before You Die.” Being a world traveler and a sophisticate, I took the quiz. I got 10%. I have seen 10 of the 100 places they listed.
And then I thought: Well, Jesus! I have seen Casablanca, and Tunis, and the Tophet in Carthage. I have seen the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington state. I have visited Cabo Rojo in Puerto Rico, and I have looked across the Caribbean at the misty shore of Hispaniola. I’ve looked across from a café in Tangiers at the Rock of Gibraltar. I have gone to the Hotel des Invalides in Paris and looked down at the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Aren’t these enough?
Why do I need to check things off a generic list? I’ve seen some amazing things that most people will probably never see.
And I didn’t just walk past them. I stood and marveled at them. Most of the time I actually touched them.
So nyah.
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