January 5, 2009, Schiphol airport, Amsterdam. I am not even there yet, and this is what I have encountered so far in my journey: Dreams, Vision, Passion, Persistence, Kindness. The movie on the little screen in the seat ahead of me in the plane played Man on the Wire, about Phillipe Petit’s wire walking, including the span between the Twin Towers, in 1974. I held my breath. His passion, his speaking about making each day a work of art, his dream—-he retained his excitement about living his life at the edge always.

As we taxied to the gate, I finished an Icelandic novel by Arnaldur Indridason, about the persistence of kindness in the face of harsh truth.