Judah Leblang

Man Plans: Press enter or click to view image in full size Photo by Dmitrii Vaccinium on Unsplash I was biking through Shaker Heights, just east of Cleveland, Ohio, on a sunny Friday afternoon, thinking about how nicely my trip had gone so far. I was back in Cleveland for a three-week visit, a chance to see a few old friends, hang out with my cousin (my only family left in the area), and perform my one-man show, “The Expiration Date,” a dramedy about getting older, at a local library.

When I was a boy, I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours paging through a large, white book entitled Nations of the World. Each page of that well-used book contained a colored map of a country, along with useful facts—capital city, major exports, population, language, religion, form of government—along with a vivid reproduction of the national flag. The countries were arranged alphabetically, by continent.

Back in the aughts/'00s and teens/'10s, when I had a research job at Lesley University and later worked at Endicott College, time felt precious, my days busy and productive. After a full day in my Porter Square Office, I'd head over to the local gym in Medford. After a quick workout, I'd pick up something for dinner, head home, and then prepare my writing classes, which I taught once or twice a week.