Internet Diary 1/2–1/9

You Sound Like Someone Paying Attention

1/9/2021 Chelsea, VT

Too often, dates at the start of chapters in fiction do less than the author imagines. The reader does not remember them until it is too late, and meanwhile the author believes someone is following along, and so does less than they should to convey context, story, meaning.

Anyway. Today is January 9th, 2021. It is 1AM.

I have been up late looking at old photos in my computer to cheer me up. I took the below when I was traveling across the South Island of New Zealand for 9 days before the Auckland Writers’ Festival, using a guidebook at first but soon going wherever the last person we met told us to go. The land was so beautiful it seemed like any photo you took was good.

Sometimes I would look at New Zealanders, just take them in on the street, and they seemed so calm, even when excited, even when angry or busy. What was it like to have a government that wasn’t constantly antagonizing you? I wanted to stay. But as I could not stay, I took panoramic photos like the one above as if my phone could take it all in. Is it a photo of a beautiful landscape? Yes, but also a photo of a place where people can live like that, something to remind me. Especially tonight.