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# Eat Your Words: Eternal Return
- URL: https://justincox.com/blog/2021/04/eat-your-words-eternal-return/
- Published: 2021-04-13T11:28:08.000Z
- Updated: 2023-06-17T00:08:21.000Z
- Description: Are you familiar with the philosophical concept?
- Author: Justin Cox
- Tags: Craft, This Just In, Culture

I just finished reading **The Electric Kingdom* by David Arnold. Billed as “**Station Eleven* meets **The 5th Wave*,” this brilliant post-apocalyptic book raises the philosophical concept of “eternal return.” Put quite simply, everything has happened before, and everything will happen again.

There are a lot of variations on this theme throughout academic and literary work. History is often accused of repeating itself. Everything online is a copy of a copy of a copy…

Today, there’s a lot of talk about “returning” to life as usual. With vaccination rates racing infections, the pandemic may have an end date in sight. Maybe. **Hopefully*.

Look anywhere, and there are signs of a return to some semblance of **normal*. Granted, normal wasn’t great, and I really hope we don’t return to normal as it was. That said, I can’t wait to return to exploring the world.

My wife and I were ardent travelers pre-pandemic. It’s been 477 days since I last spent a night in a hotel. Sure, some people are now and have been traveling, but the two of us have remained safe and adhering to CDC guidelines.

We booked our first post-pandemic trip for later this year. To say I’m excited is an understatement. I look forward to visiting cities and local restaurants and using public transportation. It’s the little things.

All that said, I hope all of this newfound access to the world does not bring about another round of eternal return. With increased travel across borders brings a heightened risk of infection spread. While I am one of 100 million Americans with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, access remains scarce, especially in other countries.

While I look forward and plan our next trip, I wonder what **travel* will look like. What goes into COVID-consious exploration? How can I be aware of my role as a potential spreader to the unvaccinated? These are questions everyone needs to ask before **returning* to travel. If not, we could easily wind up right back where we are now (or were a few months ago) in a neverending state of eternal return.