I was reading Lee Harrison’s article in the February edition of International Living about how moving abroad is not about escape; it is about choice.  My first thought was, “Yeah – a damn hard choice because I can’t decide where to go!”

Lee uses the comparison of a “standard” menu vs. an “expanded” menu to illustrate some of his points regarding choice, but my mind wandered back to making the big choice of a country and I recalled another author pointing out that there is no need to restrict one’s self to a single choice.  To use Lee’s metaphor, you don’t have to choose between the shrimp scampi and steak Diane because it’s not your last meal… you can have both, just at different times.

If you pare down enough you can live simply, rent an apartment in the country du jour for a few months to use as a base for day trips.  When you have had your fill of country X or city Y, simply move on to the next country or region of a country.  That is a very appealing idea, but would require jettisoning 99% of what I own.  I guess that what few family mementos and heirlooms I have could be divvied up amongst my siblings or given to my brother-in-law. 

By the time I get out of Dodge I will likely still have two cats (they will be 11 and 16 when I retire) that I am unwilling to just hand off to someone else, but once they are gone I would be able to possibly put my home up for rent, store my remaining few possessions and hit the road.  Assuming the life of a vagabond has its appeal.

This brings me back to the whole health care/insurance issue.  Life on the road would need good insurance that would cover repatriation in case of emergency.  A related issue that has been nagging at me a bit is that my mom died of Alzheimer’s.  Being on the go while developing dementia would definitely not be a good thing.  Although Alzheimer’s is not definitively an inherited ailment, it is nonetheless a concern.  I don’t mean to sound cold, but I will be watching my sisters (6 and 12 years older than I) and hoping for the best.