Author: Daniel

1) BENIN: or, the elusive West Africa Trip

Daniel 6 Comments

I sat in the stairwell of the hostel, listening to my sister cry on the other end of the telephone.

“Why don’t you want to be with me?” she asked. “Do you know how shitty that feels?”

It was December 2017. I was in Chefchaouen, Morocco, nestled in the Rif mountains. The bite of winter was encroaching. I was cold, and filled with self-loathing.

“There is some part of me that feels like it really needs to go see about this woman,” I said. “I can’t stop thinking about her.”

Five years of planning, interminable delays, and the trip my sister and I had planned to take together around Africa would never occur.

I had fallen in love.

The phone call ended without resolution.

She needed to do something, or I did. I sat on the stairs and felt a blackness in my heart. I was blazing a selfish path of destruction, I knew. I had burnt a hole in the middle of my oldest, strongest relationship — to go see about a person I’d known for only three days. Que romantico. ¿No?

I shot a message to a friend back home: I contribute nothing, M. My lifestyle is so selfish. I only hurt people. What’s wrong with me?

I felt lower than I had in a very long time, But I couldn’t stop. One has to follow one’s heart. No matter the risk, no matter the damage — love is the only force of meaning in this world.

Or so I thought.

This is youth, after all.

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Is the USA Worth Being Proud of this Fourth of July?

Daniel 14 Comments

With so much to be ashamed of in the news lately, I think it’s important to remember: we have lots of be proud of here, too.

The USA’s nature is second to none; it is well-taken care of, respected, preserved, and enjoyed.

It’s important to recognize the pitfalls of history, and accept that this land doesn’t belong to us. (Especially important with the recent happenings on our southern border). Nonetheless, I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to have communed with this land, learned from it, and grown up in it.

Thanks, America.

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Canary Wharf, London

Daniel 6 Comments

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An old man contemplates progress (right) while a young man in a suit hurries back to work (left). With Credit Suisse and BArclays offices stacked on top of luxury malls and shiny storefronts, Canary Wharf is a place for movers and shakers. Everyone wears a suit, and everyone is in a hurry.

This is the apex of capitalism.

I wonder what the old man is thinking.

And if the kid on the left could ever understand.

Europe’s Last Free Rivers

Daniel 4 Comments

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Europe recently; from big cities to the mountain ranges to tiny little villages in the middle of nowhere.

As an American, one of the most striking things I noticed in Europe was the importance of water. Rivers are the lifeblood of this continent. The major cities were built around them, which makes sense, as back in the day waterways were by far the quickest and most efficient method of moving people and goods around.

The European conquest of nature extends far beyond building cities though; almost every single major river on the continent has been dammed for hydroelectric power.

As an American, and one from the West, this fusion of civilization and nature always struck me in an odd way. In the U.S., we usually separate these things. Our nation was built on the back of railroad and automobile infrastructure, which means besides the Mississippi and a few other routes, rivers have largely been left alone. We prefer coal and oil over hydropower (not necessarily a good thing). We also enjoy a deep bond with our public lands.

In the US, our wilderness is untamed and unaltered as much as we can make it so.

For me, this respect for the land and the ecosystems is just as American as the right to own guns, or eat cheeseburgers, or whatever else foreigners associate with our nation. The first time I saw trees painted to mark trails in Hungary, I was horrified. The golden words in the American wilderness are Leave No Trace.

So when I read this article on Adventure Journal about the planned damming of Europe’s last, pristine rivers in the Balkan Peninsula, my initial reaction was pretty negative.

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