I am soon to embark on what is probably one of the most foolhardy itineraries I’ve ever done. It’s just a lot of travel over very wide swaths of space, in a very short amount of time.
It’s only two weeks. It will be OK. I will do all the things that need to be done and see the people that need to be seen, and then I will get to come home and sit on my couch.
And in the meantime, I will be flying with a big red pen to use on printed-up copies of the last two chapters and the notes for the talk (on Jewish sexual ethics) that I’ll be giving while in one of these fine locations, and notes for the drash I’m giving somewhere else, so that I can be amusing myself on all of these airplanes, and getting some actual work done. Because though it’s not really a vacation, it’s going to be hard to get a real day’s writing in, except here or there if I can. It’ll be something like 40-45 hours of flight time over two weeks, plus 4-5 hours of train and, of course, all that transport to and from the airport.
Anyway, wish me luck. Pray that the skies really are friendly to me, OK?