le tour eiffel

As I stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower on my last night in Paris, I stopped to look at the mileage to various cities around the world. London. Chicago. Tokyo. Etc. Different miles and kilometers in different directions, some close, some far, all seemingly reachable even though I knew I would never get everywhere. As I stood and stared at the Parisian city lights, I thought about where I had been, and where I would be going. 5 days before I had left my home in London for 4 months, the next morning I would be in Switzerland, Italy a few days after, and so on, and so forth, until coming home where everything would be mundane and I would have no money left. I don't know if there was something in the air, or if people just get this way every now and then, or maybe it was that silly milage chart, but for a fleeting moment on that night in France I began to question the various paths my life had taken thus far. And no man-made structure has caused me to philosophize in the same way since.

based on may 2003