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Hey, I hope these words find you well in these uncertain, physically distant times. While WONDER WANDER 2020 was canceled on account of the coronavirus, I count myself fortunate tonight to be typing this late night letter. This act is a source of great connection and meaning for me, and am especially grateful this month for your willingness to meld your mind with mine. Contrary to most of the world, the tempo of my life dramatically increased this month. So overwhelmingly, in fact, that I haven’t once sat down to write since the letter I sent your way last month. While fortunate to be busy, April was one of the more stressful, intense, and expensive months of my life. I changed flight schools, switched from low wing to high wing planes, and five days before the checkride for my private pilot license, had to switch to and learn a third type of airplane. Last week was a mad dash of flying at 6am each morning, studying all afternoon and evening, and a final, surreal “cross country” night flight over the lights of Phoenix on which I was so tired my instructor repeatedly informed me I wasn’t saying my plane’s tail number over the radio right (“SkyHawk 64056” became “SkyHawk 2468” a cute, subconscious throwback to the days of little league baseball postgame “who do we appreciate” chants). It’s a long story. What matters, though, is that yesterday I passed the oral portion of the checkride! With gusty afternoon winds, the flight portion was postponed until next week. I’m also happy to report that my training will be much more reasonably paced going forward. To be honest, the stream of ideas that perennially poured through my head and out my pen has run dry during these more trying times learning to fly. You may have noticed a general lack of articles attached to the bottom of these letters this year? This was my great fear when entering flight school, a thing I promised myself I would not let happen, but deep down sort of knew was coming with flight school taking the top rung of my priorities. I have a fear of stepping away from writing, from these letters, from my philosophizing, from you guys, and losing the momentum this wonderful little niche of interweb interaction has built. It feels risky to me, a gamble not with money down on the table, but a hunk of my soul. I’ve seen similar pursuits abandoned when travelers return home. I’ve watched others lose their fire, seen spirits wane, and do not want flight school to be the thing that extinguishes this act I’ve so come to love. I still intended for flying to be the wondrous work that eventually supports these literary endeavors. While flight school might slow me down for a while, I suspect flying will eventually be more of an inspiration and help than hindrance. Since I haven’t written anything new this month, I went back through the archives and attached three particularly pertinent articles for this time of the coronavirus. These are articles about things that support my well-being, curiosity, and sense of aliveness — especially if you’ve got the time — take a gander. Make Bruce Dickinson proud! With love & stoke, Ethan
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