All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft

by Geraldine DeRuiter

it all helps to paint the picture of who we are at a precise moment in time.

Not everyone will see our greatness. We might not even see it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

He was still there to listen to my misadventures, to feed me and hold me close. I don’t know how many years we have left, he and I. I don’t know if we’ll bow out early like Messrs. Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh, or if we’ll be around long enough to watch the other’s hair grow gray. I just know that in a world where nothing is constant, when I can’t even be sure of myself, this one thing endures. The truth is, roads move only in one direction, no matter how hard you try or how desperately you scream at traffic. You take a deep breath, and you accept that you are going somewhere new. You will get used to this new place, to your new reflection, to the dent in your head. If you are very, very lucky, you will find a familiar face when you get there. He will smile at you as he always has and ask if you want to get steak frites.

“No one will know how to make you seriously consider fratricide like your sibling does.”

Really, the only fundamental difference is that Zach Braff has an estimated net worth of $22 million, and Edward… has a vast collection of Transformers.)

Giant robots feature prominently in my brother’s theatrical canon.

My father rolled his eyes. My brother had given him the greatest gift he could ask for: an entirely new generation with whom to be exasperated.

Sometimes you can’t see the path you’re on. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

“Not all who wander are lost.”