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The Second Month

9 September 2020, Jürg Messmer

Somehow this book "Holes" (by Louis Sachar) has caught my attention: the story of a boy who is sent to a camp for juvenile delinquents because he had been convicted for stealing the sneakers of a famous baseball player, even though they had simply fallen from the sky onto his head. But since nobody believes this heavenly story, this innocent unlucky fellow has no choice but to admit the theft.

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Ireland - the first month

8 August 2020, Jürg Messmer

More than a month has passed since I set foot on Ireland, a place where I originally planned to visit for one or two weeks only. And it’s a good place to be, in spite of the rain. Actually the weather suited my state of mind. It had felt like rain had been falling on my head for quite a while. Covid-19 has pretty much fucked up my plans and it seems there is no end to it. A few days ago I talked to Anna and realised that not much has changed since we talked last, I’m still not welcome in the States, and the situation in Guatemala is not much different, nor in Mexico, another country that I have planned to pass by bus once more, to cross the borders on foot again, one more time in the opposite direction of most migrants and refugees that are coming up from the South to the North - at least in “normal” times.

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What's allowed is right

3 May 2020, Jürg Messmer

It's Easter Sunday! I thought about it, also because my long-time teacher and confidante in Guatemala had looked at the rough version of this text (in Spanish) and wrote me, you are absolutely right! and also, I understand you!
In the second part of her message, however, she had struck a subtly different note, which I immediately felt was a reprimand. Rightly I understood this as a reminder! I also thought, as so often, of that person with whom I keep getting into a fight over subjects like health and rules. Both voices are important to me.

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Esteemed Will!

1 May 2020, Jürg Messmer

What a title for a text in a travel blog? Surely not something like that again, where at the end you don't know where your head is at anymore and wonder why this text has exactly this title now. I’m trying to improve!

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Dear friends in Traverse City, Happy Easter!

10 April 2020, Jürg Messmer

How strange, these times of the corona virus! Addressed and identified as Covid-19, for solid strategic purposes it seems - as if we were in times of war! How strange we are, we human beings, we share so many things, and are unique at the very same time. I have always been wondering how these so different perspectives can go together well, or even whether they need to be pacified?

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Why not dream?

30 March 2020, Jürg Messmer

Life is a dream. A nightmare now and then, I have to admit. But we are free to do, good or bad, depending on our point of view, even under the conditions of these corona virus times. We are part of the conditions and we are determining them at the same time. We can rest, stay calm, get excited, be paralysed or keep moving.

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