Old places have always beckoned me to enter. Maybe it’s the historian in me. I love the past more than I appreciate the present. Old places make us better humans. They hold our memories; they connect us to the people who came before us, and they serve as meeting points between what was and what is to come.

I stopped talking about politics and religion with my family because I believed it was the only way we could remain in a relationship. I’m now questioning that decision. Without talking about hard things, people never change. Without confronting lies, people remain programmed. Intervention is difficult, but it is necessary.