Every morning I read the horoscope in my local newspaper just for kicks, but lately I’ve been wondering what planet the writer is from. Just the other day, she recommended I venture out to attend a social event, making me wonder whether she’s trying to kill me. Instead, I’ll stay in and try to come up with other angles I could write about, because travel writing during the age of Coronavirus seems not only callow but also downright callous. Last week my attempt to write about travel in a new vein resulted in my blog Traveling in Place during Coronavirus, about ways to travel without actually going anywhere.
A different kind of travel writing
With more time freed up from not traveling, maybe I can finally work on articles that have been on the back burner, emphasizing history or culture rather than the destination itself. One friend suggested that my travel writing during the age of Coronavirus could focus on rewriting some of my previous travel articles to make them more for armchair travelers.
Some travel writers have been compiling lists of their favorite novels or movies that transport us to far-away destinations. Others are touting museums, parks, and other entities offering online virtual tours. In fact, the Internet is loaded with possibilities. Because my interest lies with Japan, these old reels of Tokyo going back a century or more are especially fascinating to me.
Or maybe I should write something entirely different. I could, for example, dust off that novel I started long ago, about four women living in Tokyo. In 2011, my first chapter actually won an award, the local Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award, which led me to think that people might be interested in reading it. I added a few chapters after that. But then life got busy as my markets for travel writing expanded and the Tokyo Olympics came on the horizon. Besides, writing fiction for my own enjoyment (and without compensation) has always taken a backseat to the need to make a living. No one I know personally has ever struck it rich writing about travel. But then, we don’t do it for the money.
Coping with this new life
Meanwhile, the world is still crazy, COVID-19 seems to have a life of its own, and the misery people are suffering in some parts of the globe is unfathomable. I’m especially worried about South Africa, India, and places in South America that have only begun their horrifying journey. Japan, too, seems at the tip of the iceberg, though some suspect Coronavirus has been brewing there for some time.
A couple of weeks ago I contributed to a new series in gettingontravel.com, called Life without Travel. I wrote about Coronavirus in my hometown and how it has been affecting me. Since then, the number of people infected in my county has climbed from fewer than 30 to 38, which seems blessedly low for a population of more than 100,000. Thankfully, there have been no deaths.
Also since then, spring is upon us and the profusion of flowers brings a glimmer of hope. For Japanese, blooms are reminders of the fleeting, transitory nature of life, a concept that is meant to be embraced rather than denied.
At any rate, the malaise I experienced during my early days of sheltering in place has lifted somewhat, dissipated by warmer weather, blue skies, and nature’s rebirth. This week I finally started assessing my garden. I cleaned out my first closet. But contrary to my horoscope, I won’t be attending events any time soon.
I think I’m OK with that. Perhaps these days of isolation are meant to foster introspection, a forced Walden Pond of our times. If that’s the case, I’m all in. Then again, do we really have a choice?
