Into the Desert

On November 6, 2024, I awoke early in the morning, perhaps around 5:30 or 6am, after only a few hours of sleep. I had gone to bed around 2am Vienna time, when the news was beginning to look bleak, but the results were far from certain. A glance at my phone confirmed the outcome. Sickened, I quickly washed, dressed, and left my room in the middle of the city. I had a small bag with a change of clothes, a bag of mixed nuts, a half bottle of wine, my laptop and phone, and a few other valuables. I gave everything away to the first destitute person I came across, asking only that he pray for the suffering in return. I took a streetcar to Wien Hauptbahnhof and got on a train heading southwest toward a monastery I had visited a few years earlier. I entered the monastery several hours later, officially as a visitor but hinting at more long-term intentions, and from that moment until now I have not read any news or communicated with the outside world. My days have been filled with physical wo...