55 Comments

I loved reading about your commutes. I once did a writers’ residency in Cairo, and I had to pay someone to help me cross the road each day. It was terrifying. My host said, ‘Ah, don’t worry, the Cairenes are great negotiators. They’ll never run you over.’ I didn’t fancy taking my chances with that pearl of wisdom!

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That made me smile. Thank you for sharing, Katherine! I developed a deep love for Cairenes, who taught me, among other things, a lot about resilience and how to make the most of what we have in life. But that never made me feel any safer crossing Nile Street!

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Looove the accompanying photos, especially the cherry blossoms in Tokyo

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Very nice descriptive writing. I could imagine taking those walks though cities I will never visit.

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Thank you, Bert!

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How wonderful to have lived in all those places!

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Thanks, June. I've been lucky.

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This piece is so nicely structured around the repetition of a commute and all the variety of these far flung locations. Well done!

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Thank you, Victoria. Yes, I came to realise (after I started writing) that a commute is a (for me) useful way of exploring my experience of living in different cities around the world.

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So many places. So many non-pedestrian pedestrian experiences! Beautiful. :) I loved this, too, from the very beginning of the essay: "more of a daily transformation." I would like to look for that somehow. If not in a commute then somehow else. It feels... right.

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Thank you! Yes, the experience of going out to work on a farm is interesting. Farmhouse is just one word, but farm and house are different worlds.

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This was such fun to read, thank you!

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Thank you , Anna!

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Lovely article, beautiful photos. How wonderful to have lived in so many fabled cities. But even better is your gift of paying attention. It’s only a part of what makes your writing so extraordinary; you have a singular gift for expressing the spirit of a place. Thank you, Jeffrey.

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Thank you for your kind comments, Mary. They mean a lot to me! Thank you for being here and being such a generous reader.

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I had never heard of Marchetti’s constant until your piece, Jeffrey but interestingly enough many of my commutes have matched it. Thanks for teaching me something new.

And thanks for sharing some of your commutes :)

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Thank you, Michael. It was new to me, too!

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I love a walking commute. It's one of my favorite aspects of my current job, especially as the downhill portion is in the afternoon and at the right time of year is accompanied by a gorgeous view of the sunset spilling over the downtown core.

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That sounds wonderful Asha. A walk towards the sunset!

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Thanks Jeffrey for allowing us to commute vicariously with you. What a privilege to have lived and worked in so many historic cities.

I love to walk everywhere I need to be, and most of the time I can and often through Central Park. But my usual walking limit is just about 30 minutes. Much farther and I'll take transportation. So I'm following Marchetti's law pretty closely as well, without realizing it.

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Thanks, David. It seems remarkable that we seem to stick to that length of commute (on average). I guess there must be some reason for it.

The walk through Central Park must be lovely.

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So interesting.

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Thank you, Mike!

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Love these flashback of your commute in faraway and exotic places. Great photos too. Is there a favourite commute and why? Reading this made me think you must love your job!😀

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Commutes is a great topic. I did an essay on the walking experiences I've had since that's my preferred daily mode of transport and this reminded me of it. Crossing the Nile seems so romantic, although, I'm sure it became rather pedestrian (see what I did there? heh, heh).

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Thank you Lani! I love walking too and tend to walk around cities in preference to anything else, when I can. I think (hope) I never forgot what a privilege it was to cross the Nile every day and gaze at its slow-running waters.

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The 405 in L.A. Thankfully that was not a regular commute for me when I lived in L.A. I consider myself lucky to have had very few jobs that required long commutes. Fabulous post, Jeffrey. It's been 16 years since I was in L.A. but knew exactly where that 2nd photo was taken.

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Thank you, Pamela! I don't like to use a lot of stock photos but I wanted something to capture the classic commute by car, and LA seemed to be the best place to choose.

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L.A. is that in a nutshell.

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What a range of commutes! I enjoyed the structure you used to describe your comings and goings.

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Thank you, Stephanie!

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