Table for Two

by Amor Towles

Across the top of it in large capital letters she wrote PLACES TO GO, then commenced to itemize: The Forbidden City The Taj Mahal After the Taj Mahal she paused. She bit the pencil’s eraser, at a loss for a third locale. At a loss for a third locale?! she chided herself. The world is big. It’s bigger than a bread box! Eve closed her eyes and tried to remember the map of the world that had hung on the wall of her ninth-grade classroom. (She had certainly stared at it enough.) And there in the south of Spain a destination presented itself. Then one in the heart of Russia. And another on the banks of the Nile. In fact, so quickly did the destinations come to mind, the kindly stranger’s pencil could barely keep up. The Alhambra The Hermitage The Pyramids! Lists aren’t so bad, Eve realized. They didn’t have to be a catalogue of ladylike constraints. They could just as easily testify to plans and aspirations. A celebration of the not yet done. Of what Thou shalt! It really just depended on which side of the pencil you were on.

I have traveled extensively, yet most of the places listed I have yet to visit. The world is vast and there is never enough time to see everything. It is necessary to prioritize.