This is one of those rare New Yorker cartoons (by Will McPhail) you clip out and stick on the fridge. I thought about it the other day when I read the obituary for Dean Ford, lead singer of the Marmalade:

I wanted to start over. I wanted a new life. The trouble was, I brought myself with me.

That’s the beginning of a country song, right there. Here’s an old poem of mine to go with it:

It’s like Thoreau wrote in his journal (he could’ve written some country songs):

It matters not where or how far you travel—the farther commonly the worse—but how much alive you are.

Update (5/19/2022): After reposting this recently, several people sent me this hilarious SNL bit: