It is by unlikely coincidence that the founders of Passports with Purpose (Debbie Dubrow, Beth Whitman, Meg Paynor and yours truly, minus the currently traveling Michelle Duffy — we miss you!) were seated, yet again, in front of cupcakes at the Capitol Hill Cupcake Royale. We had made a concerted effort to meet in a cupcake free zone, rejecting two different locations before finding ourselves in the land of dense chocolate icing and crema.… continued…
“I like sugar in my coffee, not in my career advice.” Tim Leffel, author, Travel Writing 2.0, via Twitter
Confession: I am a sucker. Many years ago, when I first declared to myself that I wanted to be a travel writer, I signed up for a travel writing “program.” This “program” didn’t actually offer me any solid advice, not in the least, what it did was give me some specious downloadable “credentials” that I could present to various hotel managers or PR agents convincing them that I was associated with a “legitimate” publication.… continued…
There’s nothing I can say that I didn’t say last year. It’s been nine years. I still feel the same.
It is easy, with a handful of years behind us, to say that on September 11, 2001, everything changed. It is easy to look back and see ourselves shifted into shadow and grief as though in that one horrible moment, something black crossed in front of the sun. And for some it is true, it was an instant between fine and not fine, between blissfully complacent and angry with fear, between the world being a boundless universe of wonder and the world collapsing into the space between our bodies and our television sets.… continued…
