In 1642, an English prisoner wrote his fiancée a poem. In the final stanza, he penned what remains one of the most prescient declarations of freedom:

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,
Nor Iron bars a Cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an Hermitage.

Richard Lovelace was imprisoned, not trapped:

If I have freedom in my Love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above,
Enjoy such Liberty.

To Althea, from Prison

Nearly four centuries later, the COVID-19 pandemic locked over 91% of the world’s population down. Never before in history were so many confined at once: 7.1 billion people around the globe, behind borders and walls.

But stone walls do not a prison make, and lockdown need not mean locked up. Artist Beau Kerouac decided to prove it:

He took the whole world on a walk.

Wander is a magical series of short, five-minute films designed to bring joy, escapism, and meditation to everyone during these times. Each film takes the viewer on a virtual walk in some of the world’s most beautiful places, now closed: art institutions, museums, gardens, theaters, opera houses … to the sound of some of the most beautiful stories, poems, essays, and letters by famous writers and artists.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is read at the Victoria and Albert. A Letter from the artist himselfat the Van Gogh Museum. Shakespeare at Shakespeare’s Globe. Jane Austen at Stonehenge.Yeats at the National Ballet. And at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Hesse’s reflections on Trees.

Each episode is a dreamy work of art, with whimsical illustrations. For five minutes, anyone, anywhere, behind any walls… can wander.

The root of the word wander is the Old English wandrian:

“to wander, roam, fly around, hover; to change; to stray, err.”

So endlessly beautiful a word it spread in endless variations: wandrōną, *wendʰ, wender, wandern, vandra… on every continent. A wanderer is one who travels, is free to travel, aimlessly.

“A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening.”

– Herman Hesse

With the world on standstill, it has been easy to feel that life has as well. Easy to forget the “golden and silver light, the blue and the dim” of Yeats’ Heavens, the pinks and creams in Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms, the day of the month, like the Mad Hatter. Easy to forget how it felt to be sixteen and “chancing to fall in love,” to go on an adventure, to simply go outside for a walk.

But in this stillness, there can be magic, for minds innocent and quiet. Art, music, words, dance, and nature remind us of this. And people who, like Beau and the illustrators, filmmakers, musicians, narrators, mental health experts, and sponsors who made Wander possible.

These films are free and available to all, online and television, for no other reason than to offer five minutes of “joy and escapism.” – Beau

Dear Beau,

I am no Lovelace, but I know how lockdown feels. I and 7.1 billion others. You do not know them or me, but took us wandering, as we stood still, across gorgeous landscapes. Thank you. For the images, the sounds, the words. The joy and escape, beauty and freedom.

I told you I was no Lovelace. What I am trying to say, in simpler words, is thank you for the walk. It was lovely.