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I've been putting my passport to good use lately. I use it as a coaster and to level wobbly table legs. It makes an excellent cat toy.
最近我善加利用了我的护照。我把它用来当杯垫，垫在高低不一的桌脚下。给猫咪玩也很棒。
Welcome to the pandemic of disappointments. Canceled trips, or ones never planned lest they be canceled. Family reunions, study-abroad years, lazy beach vacations. Poof. Gone. Obliterated by a tiny virus.
欢迎来到“失望大流行”。取消的旅行，或唯恐被取消而直接打消的旅行念头。家族聚会、海外留学、慵懒的海滩假期。噗，没了。因为一个小小的病毒而荡然无存。
Only a third of Americans say they have traveled overnight for leisure since March, and only slightly more, 38 percent, say they are likely to do so by the end of the year, according to one report. Only a quarter of us plan on leaving home for Thanksgiving, typically the busiest travel time. The numbers paint a grim picture of our stilled lives.
一份报告显示，自3月份以来，只有三分之一的美国人表示他们有过为休闲而通宵旅行的经历，只有38%的人表示他们可能会在年底前这么做。只有四分之一的美国人计划在感恩节离开家，这通常是最繁忙的旅行时间。这些数字描绘了我们死气沉沉的生活。
It is not natural for us to be this sedentary. Travel is in our genes. For most of the time our species has existed, "we've lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers moving about in small bands of 150 or fewer people," writes Christopher Ryan in Civilized to Death. This nomadic life was no accident. It was useful. "Moving to a neighboring band is always an option to avoid brewing conflict or just for a change in social scenery," says Ryan. Robert Louis Stevenson put it more succinctly: "The great affair is to move."
像这样长久待在同一个地方对我们来说并不自然。旅行写在我们的基因里。在人类存在的大多数时间，“我们一直是居无定所的狩猎采集者，以150人以下的小群体移动。”克里斯多福·莱恩在其著作《文明至死》中写道。这样居无定所的生活并非偶然形成，而是有其功用。莱恩指出：“迁移到邻近的族群中，一直是个化解自己团体内部酝酿的冲突以及转换社交场景的手段。”写了《金银岛》的19世纪作家罗伯特·刘易斯·史蒂文森说得更精简：“移动是人类的大事。”
What if we can't move, though? What if we're unable to hunt or gather? What's a traveler to do? There are many ways to answer that question. "Despair," though, is not one of them.
但如果我们不能移动会怎么样？如果我们无法狩猎或采集会怎么样？一名旅人又该如何是好？问题的答案虽有千百种，但“绝望”不会是其中之一。
