One of My Oldest Lists: Places to Visit

I have a woven box inherited a couple decades ago that holds money from different countries I have visited. I do not open it too often as I am not in the habit of traveling overseas regularly (malheureusement). Last week, upon depositing some korunas, forints, and zlotys, I was reacquainted with one of my oldest lists.

My friend, Anabel Lopez, and I made this while sitting in a park in Galicia, Spain in August 1995. Some of the entries were hers and some were mine. Remarkably we shared many of the same desires in places where we wanted to travel. The following year, I managed to visit Europe again and marked off some of the countries. I have never felt compelled to check them off after that (and part of me wished I had not started).

I studied this list for awhile, noting how the ink faded, wondering if I had accomplished much in the last 18 years of travel. Interestingly, I lived in some of the places and indirectly created a series, From Venice Beach to the Venice Bienale, from a couple of the entries.

Of course, I had to update the list - the new one is far more descriptive and rather than shrinking, it has grown. Perhaps I will give myself permission to cross the countries off or scrawl new ones underneath. Now the old one exists as a record in a box of old change. I will probably hang onto it until it's illegible, contemplate photographing it, then finally admit that it is yet another object marking the passage of time (and place and the endless search for something, somewhere else).