Even now, just the word "loneliness" can trigger the emotion-part melancholy and part loss-of those days. It was only after I had been doing spiritual practice for quite some time that I began to see that the emotion of loneliness is not just personal. Like anger and fear, loneliness is one of those universal, primal emotions, a groove in humanity's subconscious.
Far from serving as a figurative and literal vehicle for freedom and independence, cars exclude vast numbers of people from full enfranchisement in society -children, older people who have lost the ability to drive, people with disabilities that prevent them from driving, people who can't afford to buy or operate a car. Automobiles have produced far more collective damage to the world, in terms of death, illness, and environmental destruction, than nearly any other invention in human history.
Despite our earnest efforts to battle through German grammar, to enjoy woody white asparagus and to watchTatort (still hoping and waiting for a good episode), the feeling of belonging here in our adopted homeland remained elusive. We've been here for more than three decades combined, and as journalists our job is to get to know the country in many cases better than natives.
