Ok, in truth I can't really say "discover". I didn't discover them, but my friends did!! And through them, I then discovered them!! Rediscovered? Stole? Took? Whatever! Didn't Nicolas Cage once say in a movie that "the treasure[s were] too great for any one man to have"? And that's what I'm doing! Sharing the treasures!
This treasure is an article that appeared in The New York Times Opinion Pages.
It struck me so much that I had to print it out, circle things, mark things, underline things and reread it several times so that I was sure I was really taking in its meaning and comprehending it in a way that I could then correctly reflect on my life and my travels.
The article looks at why we travel.
What we get from it. What we give to it. How traveling has changed. How it can change us. Is it tourism we do when we leave home or have we set out on a quest of enlightenment? Are we pushing through the discomforts that force us to learn more about others and also look deeper into ourselves or are we holding on to the known and merely looking at the uncaptured moments of life passing by?
"Our wandering is meant to lead back toward ourselves. This is the paradox: we set out on adventures to gain deeper access to ourselves; we travel to transcend our own limitations. Travel should be an art through which our restlessness finds expression. We must bring back the idea of travel as a search."
I leave for Vietnam and Cambodia in 3 weeks, and this article has given me much to think about before my feet depart Korean soil.
Am I this traveler? Is each cabin door closing the beginning of a new pilgrimage for me? Do I search to find the answers for my curiosity? Do I open myself up to vulnerability? Do I let anxieties overtake me or guide me?
"Travel is a search for meaning, not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of others... The kind of travel to which we aspire should tolerate uncertainty and discomfort... [W]e need to permit ourselves to be clumsy, inexpert and even a bit lonely... [W]e will need to reclaim some notion of the heroic: a quest for communion and, ultimately, self-knowledge."
I hope my travels continue to bring me new meaning and that the parameters of life's possibilities continue to expand before me.
Not all those who wander are lost. ~JRR Tolkien
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