Did something similar but not nearly as long across a good part of Mexico a few years ago. It was wonderful though one cannot be in a hurry. I will have to consider your route for a future pilgrimage. Thank you for sharing it!
Ensure your career isn't your religion. After a decade in tech, mostly in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I realized people had not ascended to some higher intellectual belief but sleep walked into a half baked religion, myself included to some degree.
The world of tech is experiencing schisms and reformations all at a pace unseen in history. But tech is still not worth making one's religion or identity.
Delight in whatever you do and find ways to be in service of others. I am certain many of the brilliant people here reading this will not be doing the same thing a decade from today, but many of those who we consider good people, will be doing new things with the same heart of generosity. Perhaps from that is where we should build our identity.
I became a parent of two this year and my oldest is now 3 years old. One of the greatest things in life has to be a newborn baby. And more than ever for me, it makes sense that the greatest thing would be if God came as a newborn baby.
Few people understand the Punic wars and what it took to “delete” Carthage from the world. Delenda Cartago Est.
Goldsworthy tells the story accessibly from both sides of the wars. Lessons that echo throughout history.
More of a biography but still fits your criteria is The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. It’s an easy read and hard to put down. I had no idea what it took to make flying a thing until that book. We definitely take for granted how much those two men changed the world.
My parents grew up around this time and a lot of it still looked liked this when I was a kid in the 90s.
I always wanted to move back to this San Diego, but it no longer exists. Appreciate whoever did this work.