Early in 2019 it was becoming apparent that a huge film project I had spent the previous two-and-a-half years on was fizzling. Our money was running out, team calls were becoming more infrequent and unfocused, and the “no’s” were starting to take their toll on all of us.
When it finally dissolved I found myself in a creative void that only time could resolve. My wife and I decided to travel and travel we did. We went to London for ten glorious days and a few months later we flew to Amsterdam and spent a few weeks right in the heart of the city. It was like a dream come true and I still reminisce about having afternoon tea and the Savoy and awesome hospitality we were shown by some of the locals (many of whom are here on Hive).
London
Amsterdam
Having the worst case of wanderlust of anyone I know I had been preparing for most of my life. I vicariously satisfied my travel bug for decades through shows like Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”, “Parts Unknown” and anything by Rick Steves.
More recently I had gotten into a whole new generation of travelers like Simon Wilson, Tangerine Travels, the Vaga Brothers, and Kara and Nate on YouTube. The positivity of Kara and Nate's channel has continued to be a bright spot and inspiration for me throughout the pandemic. Thanks for that you two! Our own whirlwind year of criss-crossing the globe was surreal and exhilarating for us, we craved more. Much more.
Kara and Nate
About mid way through the Amsterdam trip I began to think about starting my own travel channel on YouTube. What better than to make this passion my new career and eventually have it finance our global tour? I decided I could do it.
Throughout the remainder of 2019 and early 2020 we continued our adventures. We traveled to St. Thomas then took an epic road trip down to Sedona and spent a few weeks hiking the red rock desert. By that point I had all of the equipment I needed picked out and started taking online video editing courses.
St. Thomas
Sedona
As we were traveling back from Sedona in February of 2020 we started seeing stories on the news about viral outbreaks on cruise ships. In the four days it took us to get back home to Minnesota the news of the virus got much more serious. The next day we went to a friend’s birthday celebration and shortly after this the quarantines and lock downs began. Then came the toilet paper shortages, the fights over vaccinations and mask wearing, the isolation, a watershed of disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Due to the travel restrictions our wings were effectively clipped so I switched gears and decided to write/publish Mindful Moments and Ephemera. Thankfully those two books were received well by readers. Now I’m working on my newest novel until we can start traveling again. Thankfully those first two projects have worked out well and have kept me busy enough to keep my sanity. My wife and I were some of the lucky ones, many people’s livelihoods were destroyed by this virus.
Aside from that career aspect of my life Covid-19 has transformed our personal lives more than anything else I can remember. We lost my Dad to the virus in November of last year. Our relationships with our friends have changed drastically as well. Except for a small handful of close friends, the continuity of many of our friendships has been severed and feels different now. I don’t know if some of those ties will ever be restored, maybe in time. The pandemic has changed people’s priorities.
It’s difficult to put into words but the entirety of life feels very different at this point of the pandemic. Do you feel that too? Covid-19 feels like it created this huge canyon and if we look far enough in the distance behind us we can still see what life was like before it. I can’t believe how relatively carefree life was back then in the “good old days” despite all of the chaos and stressors we had.
Lately, I keep seeing articles in the mainstream media about a “New Roaring 20’s”. About how the pandemic will usher in a carefree decade of decadence like the decade after the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. This seems like wishful thinking to me. Maybe that's exactly what we need. We will see if that happens but I’m not that optimistic.
That’s another thing I’m working on regaining, my optimism. As for future plans, they still seem difficult to pin down. It still feels like we’re in this strange state of limbo. I know that in time we will learn how to put these horrific years behind us and heal ourselves. Some other version of life will eventually sprout from these ashes. I hope it’s as wonderful, vibrant, and weird as the one that came before it.
All for now.
With Gratitude,
Eric Vance Walton
Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
Pick up a copy of Ephemera today on Amazon.
Most of us have experienced a moment of perfect peace at least once in our lives. In these moments we lose ourselves and feel connected to everything. I call these mindful moments. Words can’t describe how complete they make us feel.
These moments are usually fragile, evaporating in seconds. What if there was a way to train your mind to experience more of them? It’s deceptively easy and requires nothing more than a subtle shift in mindset. My new book, Mindful Moments, will teach you to be much more content despite the chaos and imperfect circumstances continuing to unfold around you. Upgrade your life experience today for only $15.99 on Amazon.com.
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Saddest thing is not being able to make contact with those in old-age homes, after fighting wars to secure a future for all, now locked up with no contact I feel is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard of. Not the "pandemic", this is being rulers using to extremes!
Having lost many (not all to covid-19) one starts to watch life and livelihoods slip away due to WHO, Governments, so called "Rulers", yet true Leaders I have yet to find.
Hopefully one day soon we will run like the wind again, free of constraint, loss of life has been ugly enough being handled incorrectly! Yet here we sit in a country riddled with TB, HIV and now Rabies running rampant, but hey all eyes on Covid-19, masks and basic washing of hands on TV only! "No Comment".
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Yes, I agree! Isolation is difficult on all of us but especially hard for the elderly. We lost my Dad last year and didn't get to be with him for the last month or so. We only saw him through a window or on Zoom. There were hundreds of thousands of souls who spent their last days on Earth that way. That's the most inhumane thing I can imagine.
How the pandemic has been handled was atrocious on many levels from the very beginning. It's reframed reality for us really. There's such a distinct difference between Pre and Post Covid life.
If feels like life itself has been sabotaged with so many rules, force fed mis-information.
None-the-less, our elderly and very young are suffering, many bad spin-offs from recent events are going to be with everyone for many years to come.
I was a witness through the readings of your post of the situations you mention, it made me very happy to learn of the things that have worked very well, and very sad when things did not work, your father's departure touched my heart; I would have never imagined it dear friend @ericvancewalton.
In our case, the pandemic arrived at our worst moment, it could not be worse, I was in bed without getting up for several months, the product of a great depression.
While everyone was affected by the condition, I was afloat meeting Hive; We stay safe without leaving home, learning that the simple things in life are what matters, many times in the worst circumstances you learn what you are made of.
I live in a complicated country, if you read the history of Argentina you will see that we have always been in an economic emergency, I learned to work before reading and writing; Situations like the one we are living here we are used to.
I'm doing some good things online and I think a better future awaits us economically; It's just a matter of time.
I am very happy to have met you and to have accompanied you in the distances. I wish you many successes dear friend because you deserve it.
Good thing that depression has already happened to you, friend @jlufer, not all of us take difficulties the same, but it is much better to accept them and thus be able to think coldly what to do to overcome the problem. I'm glad you're okay now.
Thank you @jlufer. As I look back at my old posts and comments you've been with me here through all of the ups and downs. I appreciate that very much. I'm sorry to hear about your depression but am thankful you found a way to push through to the other side of it. We all have to find a way to see that light of hope. I'm glad to have met you too, my friend. One of these days I'm going to come to your country and buy you a beer (or six) and we can sit down and swap stories. I wish you and your family all the best. Thank you for being here as a valued member of this Hive community! You are a living and breathing example of what Hive is all about.
Wouldn't that be... fun? (as I don't necessarily know that it'd be beneficial in the long term). Unfortunately, I'm of a more pessimistic bend, and can't help but think this is only the beginning of something much darker.
Since I, too, am a big fan of traveling the world, I've tried to get my fix, squeezing in small trips wherever I could. Yet even that, on some level, sickens me. We're becoming so grateful to be awarded even the slightest shred of what was once normality that we'll put up with anything for that one little crumb.
That would be pretty amazing and I suppose not impossible to imagine happening. History does run in fairly predictable cycles. I always wish I had been alive in the 20's when all of the American writers moved to Paris.
I know what you mean by being overly grateful for small things we once took for granted. Over this past summer all of the "firsts" felt incredible -- the first meal at a restaurant, the first visit to a mall (and I don't even like to shop), the first gathering with friends.
The post-truth era is tough, isn't it? It's difficult to trust anything when it's hard to discern what the truth is. I still think there's more good than bad in the world though. I think we'll get through this eventually but I think it'll be late 2022/early 2023 before anything close to what we used to consider "normal" returns.
Ah, me too. I went to Paris a few years back, looking to stay at Shakespeare and Company (which is a famous bookstore that housed the likes of Hemingway, Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, and countless others). I didn't manage to stay there, but I did stay around long enough to understand that I can go to Paris, but I can't go back to Hemingway's time, regardless how hard I try, unfortunately. So it is what it is.
You are so right, you can't chase the ghosts of the past. When I was younger I tended to overly romanticize the past and missed out on a lot of things in present moment.
We might even see a new Woodstock taking place after the pandemic is conquered methinks. We have had some of the severest lockdowns here for many months and the shackles have still not been removed, but such is the new life.
Luckily being a charity worker we are used to being avoided and so our friendship ring is very small, but they are all special people and the friendships remain intact.
Your travel lust will have to abate for a lot longer, but you can write many more novels during the wait. (Great videos)
I am sorry to hear about your father and our condolences.
How cool would another Woodstock be? If only we could bring back Hendrix and Joplin and all of those greats.
I'm sorry to hear you all have more lockdowns. I don't know how the US will avoid that this fall. Everyone here who is going to get vaccinated has and it's not enough for our population to reach herd immunity. With children back in school now (some districts are maskless) it's only a matter of time before we see business closures and mandates.
I think it's best to have a small circle of friends anyway. Yes, the travel will have to wait but I'll still try to use this time wisely.
Thanks so much for the kind words!
Sadly over the years the new music has replaced the old original stuff and cover versions are not the real thing. I would rather listen to a real guitar riff than an electronic idea of a guitar riff.
We face the same problem here as many refurse to get vaccinated and we will never reach herd immunity. Conspiracy theorists are having the times of their lives and they grab the limelight at every opportunity trying to beat each other on line.
Agreed with you about the friend count, as my wife is my best friend and we work together 24/7 in the charity world with Papillon for the past 20 years. So there's not much space for a large friend count.
We have also been bitten by a few "friends" over time and who has time for that?
Great that you are using your time wisely and maybe we will see you in South Africa some time in the future. One never knows.
It is only kindness that will heal this world and my pleasure.
Have a !BEER
I like a lot of the older stuff but I have connected with some of the modern music too. Beck is one of the biggest talents I've come across.
Oh man, the political parties are having a field day pushing people further to the extremes, all for power/votes. I always say the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It's now becoming apparent that some of the "alternative" treatments to Covid like Ivermectin do actually work for people who are in reasonably good health. I didn't believe it at first but it's looking as if that's the case. The trouble with that here in the US is so few are in "reasonably good health".
We don't have time for back-biting or drama either. That's why we keep our circle relatively small. We do hope to get to your part of the world! I'll be sure to reach out when it happens. It would be fun to meet and hang out.
Kindness is the only way! I hope you have a wonderful week!
I had to ask my wife who Beck is and she knows his music.
I am still stuck on Jethro Tull, T-Rex, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin.
They have now decided here to issue everyone with vaccination passports and I think it is an effort to encourage more people to have the vaccines.
The laboratories here did many studies on Ivermectin and the government has decided to warn the public against its use, as many people here are not in good health either.
That's just the thing, as backbiters are ten a penny, so it is wise only to have a few proven friends. Glad you will be in contact whenever you arrive here someday and I will take you to some of the famous wine farms.
Agreed with you about kindness, and may your week also be kind to you guys.
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BEER.A new roaring 20s is just what we all need! It's been stifling for us here as well, and the first time we went to one if our large shopping malls, it was exciting and felt like we were out on a date, just crazy!
Thank you for sharing your experience Eric; I'm still saddened at the way you lost your Dad!
Great response to our #bow theme.
I have only seen your video of St Thomas as you've spoken of it so often, very nicely done! Was that your Airbnb hostess towards the end?
Only see now that I've responded from hive-106316 🙃
Silver-Blond Lizzie
I don't know if I could hang with an entire decade of decadence. Maybe I would just take breaks here and there. My liver is 50 years old after all. Lol. I recently read a story about how the adult flappers in the 1920's would carry dolls around with them when they were out on the town in clubs and bars. Have you heard of that? I wish I could find a link to the story. It was fascinating because even though I'm a huge fan of that era I'd never heard of that strange historical detail before.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the videos! Yes, that was our friend Lecia from St. Thomas. We're sad because it's looking like we'll have to skip that tradition again next year. We probably won't recognize the island by the time we can get back there. Thankfully we stay in regular contact with her.
Here we are @lizelle, I found a link --- https://www.statesman.com/NEWS/20160923/Flapper-flair
I so so remember the toilet paper shortage and those conspiracy theories
Its so nice to know she survived all these
I also need to work on this too because some times it feels safe to be pessimistic about things
I miss the precovid era and I wish in could actually return
I need to take some of my own advice and reread Mindful Moments to help regain some of that optimism. Lol. It's so important to maintain a state of positivity because if we're negative we tend to attract more if it into our lives. Stay well and strong @bhoa!
Thank you and you too stay well.
Cheers
I agree with you when you say that the pandemic has changed us, but we still have to give thanks because we came out much better than many others. I also think that the plans have only been paralyzed for a while, it will not be long before we can resume what we left in 2020 @ericvancewalton. The pandemic treated you well with those 2 books and 1 novel, congratulations
Yes, I'm grateful too for coming out of what I hope is the worst of it. There are so many who lost their lives, their health, their businesses, their homes....the list could go on and on. Thanks for the reminder to be grateful. We all need that from time to time.
This is such an honest take on how the pandemic has affected all of us. Feeling grateful for career opportunities, feeling hopeful for the future, but at the same time feeling skeptical about when or if things will return to "normal"... all of this really resonates with me. I just finished university in 2018, and I wanted to travel, wanted to kickstart my career, but now I feel immensely thankful to even have a job at all.
Thank you for sharing both the positives and the negatives, and I hope things continue to look up for you and your wife. Stay safe, and take care.
Thank you! It must be strange starting your professional life during times like these. The good thing is if you look back at history there should be a very prosperous period after this mess we're in now is finally over. I think blockchain, crypto, AI, AR/VR, robotics, etc. will all play a huge role in this new age of prosperity. Now is when people should be researching, learning, and positioning themselves to make the most of it.
Love your videos @ericvancewalton, I would love to do some myself, but not that brave yet I guess, I think these lockdowns have effected many people in different ways. I don't feel to effected by it as I am a bit of a recluse, I rather stay in my safe haven "Home". My kids and husband have to drag me out, but once out, I must say I enjoy it tremendously.
Sorry to hear about your dad, send my condolences to you.
Thank you for a beautifully done post and sharing it with us.
Thank you very much @artywink! The iPhone makes it pretty easy to put those videos together. I can't wait to start using some of the more sophisticated equipment. I lean more to the introverted side too but have come out of my shell these past few years. The writing career has kind of forced me and I'm getting to the point where I enjoy some of the things that used to scare the h@ll out of me. Thankfully I have my writing to keep me occupied and this community. Winters are especially tough during lockdowns here because it's not always easy to get outside. I'm praying for a decent autumn and a slow transition into winter this year.
I wish you continued success with your writing. I need to concentrate more on my writing I think, I have written a few stories, but never had the courage to publish or share them, I think I need to change that thought and just do it, share it with Hive Lol!. Go well and have a great day.
Thank you! You should throw caution to the wind and share your work. It is difficult but gets easier in time and it's so freeing to bleed out those words and bare your soul. Writing is the best therapy in the world. Enjoy the rest of your week!
I think the pandemic has changed the future of many of us in a negative way. My life is stable since the outbreak, I just try to survice and don't know what the future will bring forth.
I think having a youtube travel channel as well as posting on HIVE would be great.
I'm glad to hear things are stable for you. If we can all get through this next year I think we'll be out of the severe restrictions. Once we reach herd immunity worldwide it sounds like this virus will become far less dangerous and more like a regular flu. I just hope the people of the world learned something from all of this. I hope the response to future pandemics is faster so they don't get this bad.
Do you think that Covid-19 is natural?
All evidence I’ve seen seems to be pointing to a lab leak.
Your fathers departure was quite painful reading through the post..
And yes the pandemic had effect on everyone's life...
Thanks, it's been a strange year without him. He still lives in our memories though. I think about him every day.
Comfort 💙💙
I find myself caring a whole lot less these days, and I like it. What I mean by that is, I shave less often and don't worry about being the strange guy on the train rocking out to music on my headphones. There is always positive to grasp from struggle. Congratulations on your book! I wish I knew how to promote mine!
Thank you! I'm not sure how old you are but I notice this attitude of not caring has grown with me naturally as I get older. What kind of a book did you write? The key to promotion is to build your platform/readership first then you have a built in audience who wants to read your work. Also, capture email addresses so you can communicate directly with those readers independent from any third-party platform with an email newsletter. I learned that painful lesson prior to finding Steemit/Hive. I had built a huge readership on Facebook then Facebook monetized and limited my outreach to readers. It was a total nightmare and I had to rebuild completely but was able to do it thanks to this community.
I'm in my mid-30's and yeah, it definitely has to do with age and experience, but it's accelerated a lot.
I think my biggest problem in promoting my fiction is that I'm not much of a reader so I am not connected to any kind of reader communities and I'm balancing a lot of other projects and communities. Learning step by step though. I'm finding nice blog readers at hive and building a business at twitter, so hopefully I can connect it all one day. Looking forward to reading more from you!
The political response to COVID keeps reminding me of 9/11. The US was definitely meddling in foreign affairs, and was apparently dabbling in gain-of-function research for viruses. Both terrorism and contagions are real dangers. However, the political solution was naked authoritarianism and arbitrary mandates instead of rational, measured response. I don't see COVID having a massive impact, but I see politics hitting hard.
I only know what my Dad went through with Covid. He was 80 years old with Alzheimer's but otherwise healthy. He was in a car accident then caught Covid in a rehab facility. The rehab facility transferred him to a sister facility that they were consolidating all there Covid positive patients in. This is where things got really dark. We would call in the morning to check on him and the staff would say he was great, coherent, and even laughing. When we'd get there in the afternoon it was the opposite, he was barely conscious, moaning, having spasms. His condition deteriorated very rapidly. I didn't even recognize him after the window visit on the third day he was so bloated and I demanded that he be taken to the ER.
After examining him they ER doctors told us he was severely dehydrated and going into kidney failure. That second facility not only hadn't been giving him his prescribed meds (one of which was an opioid so he was detoxing on top of everything else) but wasn't giving him nutrition or water. Another few hours in there and he would've died. After being stabilized at the hospital he lived for about another week on a ventilator but was too weakened to survive. We spoke with an attorney to explore suing the facility but the governor of Ohio issued a blanket immunity for these facilities to shield them from litigation.
I can't help but wonder how many other people they did this to?
Sounds like rampant malpractice.
This was such a perfect read for today and I wish I had seen it earlier. I pulled your newest write-over to my profile so I can have it for a little later today. You are one of those people that even an old post is pure gold.
Thank you.
Thanks @dswigle! I haven't been able to blog as much as I used to but when I do I'm trying to put more time into the posts. Hope you're well and having a good week!
You sure did get around! Your slideshows are lovely. I especially like the slides with the dog.
As for Covid, life changed overnight. It sounds like you managed to adjust well. I'm sorry about your Dad. I hope he was not one of the many who had to spend their last days all alone.
It will be much better.
We pretty much got three years' worth of travel done in one. We started missing our beagle after about the second day of our overseas trips. Our son watched him though so he felt like part of "his pack" was there.
Yeah, here we had Covid going on and the riots it was craziness but you just learn to make the best of it. Thanks for the condolences for my Dad. Unfortunately, he was alone for his last three or so weeks of his life. We did window visits at the nursing home before he was taken to the ICU. We were only able to do a Zoom call with him once he was there and by then he was on a vent and unconscious.
Oh, I have hope that it will eventually be better. I'm glad this kind of thing only seems to land about once a century.
The pandemic showed me that there's really no straight path. Anything can take a turn at any point.
The world feels different.. the restrictions still hold in many fields. This face mask won't stop being on my face.. have one on as I'm typing. It's 8:58pm over here and I'm waiting UCL with colleagues but have to be in a gathering of more than one with the mask.
It feels a lot different, but I guess the world is adjusting to fit the situation.
Wow you have really made a lot of trips.This is really nice to take your mind off the pandemic and to find some joy in what you love to do.
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