H = W

Dear reader,

As you read this, stop for a moment and check in on your physical state of being. Can you breathe normally and without obstruction? Can you sit without any body part clamoring for attention with its signals of pain? Can you get up and sit down and walk? Can you talk?

If the answer to the above is yes, here’s a troubling question: “Why aren’t you happy?” From where I sit right now, the above state of being—something we call “normal”—would feel like a gift from the heavens. And it is. But of course, normal so quickly becomes ”normal” and we take it for granted and it’s only when it’s gone that we realize just how precious it is. “Health” indeed equals “wealth” and given enough money to maintain a state of equilibrium with decent food, clothing and shelter, we don’t need a dime more. (Got that message, you obsessive billionaires?!!)

So this Traveling Music Teacher would love nothing more than to fulfill my self-appointed role as travel writer, bearing witness to the world’s marvelous places, people and cultures, telling a few entertaining travel stories, offering my strange perspective as a humanistic music teacher trying to make sense of the world.

But after two days in Morocco, I can only offer this:

“Cough!! Cough!!! Hack!! Hack!!!”

Repeat ever five minutes for two days.

Well, don’t sit on the edge of your chair for the more interesting report, though I’m always hoping to shed light into corners where light often doesn’t go. When I can leave my self-obsessed-survivor-mode-sick-as-a-dog state of being, I hope to say something of beauty, a word that from my limited perspective, Morocco takes seriously indeed. And discipline and friendliness and artistry. But let’s wait until I can speak more coherently than “Cough!! Cough!!! Hack!! Hack!!!”