A Virtual Fireside Chat with Simulated Fire, Too!

It’s May and there is still sometimes a chill in the evening air accompanied by spring rain storms. My fireplace provides a cozy fixture, juxtaposed to the glow of the television screen feed of cable sitcoms from the past. I am alone in my small house on the Jersey Shore and feel secure inside the gated community. It’s a park like setting and I can see the lake from my enclosed front porch windows. It’s pleasant, if not lonely here.

The internet has the possibilities to change hermit life into visits to all parts of the world at the speed of light. All without the indignities of making traditional voyages. Dragging suitcase and body through airports, taxis, and security checks. Delays and disappointments often discolor hopes and expectations of time and money laid out to satisfy desires. It’s always a gamble and of course we hope to win or at least not regret the experience.

It’s been many weeks since I left my teaching job in Vilnius, Lithuania in March to return to my family in Tbilisi, Georgia to sit out the pandemic. However, the border closed while waiting for my delayed connecting flight in Istanbul, Turkey. After spending two days in the airport negotiating with the airlines with the help of the Georgian Consulate there, my only options where to shelter in place at a hotel in Turkey indefinitely or repatriate to America, afforded by my USA passport. At least I still maintain a vacation home in New Jersey, so I would be comfortable in familiar surroundings with family in town, too. Passing through an unusually quiet midtown Manhattan after landing at JFK airport during the beginning of the shutdown felt strange. I expect the same in reverse when I hope to catch one of the first international flights available to get back to Tbilisi. In May the Georgian border is anticipated to reopen. The route used to be routine for me. These days it’s more of an experiment in risk management. The rewards of returning to my waiting wife and new baby justify the trip.

By all accounts, the Republic of Georgia has done an outstanding job of containing the spread of COVID19. The irony is that I seem to have jumped from the frying pan to the fire when I was forced to repatriate through New York to New Jersey. These two states have became the new infamous hotspots of virus cases in the world. America is usually seen as the world leader and one of the most desirable place to be, especially the New York tristate area. The little third world nation of the Republic of Georgia has won this round so far. Nothing, nowhere, and no one can be perfect all the time. My reasons for becoming an American expat and choosing to settle in Georgia are unique to me. Time, situations, and preferences flow in life like a river. I have found that it is easier to go with the flow and save fighting the current for brief and worthwhile causes. Even salmon die after exhausting themselves to swim upstream to spawn and must count on the next generation to carry on. I prefer to live to enjoy my offspring growing around me. While the circle of life differs for different species, my point is that I have learned the wisdom of choosing my battles and being creative in finding alternative solutions with global thinking. Although often challenging, I have found my expat life very rewarding.

Until I can return to Tbilisi, YouTube has proved me with guided adventures on board sailing yachts in the Caribbean and the beaches of the South Pacific. Then I realize that I have a suburban oasis just outside my front door. There are swans in the lake, ducks, and coy fish. It’s safe to wonder on the private property here as it is very easy to social distance from my neighbors. Being forced to stay in in place without much focus for a long time has forced new discoveries and appreciations to emerge. Dreaming of new adventures to come to life once travel is again safety possible while appreciating the daily life of bodily confinement that allows the mind undisturbed dreams. Dream good things is the key to happiness now.