I love the reference to the term "human flourishing".
All of us desire some mix of the old and new in our worlds, a split between the familiar and unfamiliar. I think this is true in many aspects of our lives including our travels. In my everyday life, while I usually drive the same roads, I love finding different ways to get from Point A to Point B. On a grander scale, we'll eventually return to Paris. But, in the meantime, we are drawn to new and intriguing destinations.
I've always loved finding different ways to get from point A to B. It adds an element of discovery even to the most mundane trips we might take every day.
I am an American who has been drawn to exploring other countries for as long as I can remember. My motivation was to learn more about the people who live there, to experience their culture, taste their food, listen to their music, understand how they think about different aspects of life. To do this more fully, I wanted to live in a country and learn the language, not simply tour 10 countries in 10 days. Every place where I have spent considerable amounts of time (Mexico, Quebec, Afghanistan, Holland, Austria, Ireland) has expanded my understanding of the world and increased my capacity to understand the similarities that all human beings share regardless of appearances.
Wonderful words! I am hopeful that one day I too can live abroad for an extended time. I will be in Ireland this fall though and cannot wait. Thank you for sharing your story Clarice! :)
This was great Justin. I think one of the big arguments for travel is to find your place in the world, as in, what city, town or location is right for you.
Where is the place that attracts people who are like you, people who share similar interests. If we never leave our hometown and stay sheltered there our entire lives there will be so many missed experiences and unexplored hobbies.
Ever since relocating and starting a new life in Barcelona I have less of a desire to get "out there" and more of a desire to stay closer to home and explore my local area. I still enjoy traveling, but I don't feel the need to escape like I used to back when I lived in the suburbs of Florida.
Thank you Brian! Definitely true. My wife and I have traveled quite a bit and lived out west in Colorado and in the south in Tennessee the and only recently returned home to Indiana, now being new parents and wanting to be around family and friends more. I left Indiana a decade ago feeling I had to get away and explore so I chased my career in archaeology and had some wonderful adventures but lately have been surprised how much I’m enjoying being back home. But I still have itchy feet and get to travel about four times a year which is great too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I used to have that Alain de Botton book (I bought it at an airport, of course) but I donated it in a quest to free some bookshelf space and now I deeply regret it. Anyway, I think this article touches nicely on some of my motivations for travel.
For me, travel does definitely "stand apart" from other life choices. Traveling for pleasure is always technically unnecessary, so it feels like a privilege and an indulgence. I feel it is my duty to get the most out of it. There will only be so many trips taken in a lifetime, there are too many places to possibly visit them all, so I need to choose only a handful of destination based on some arbitrary criteria. But I embrace that randomness: I've ended up in some offbeat places simply because I stumbled across an article about it in a magazine, or read an offhand comment on reddit that piqued my interest. Maybe next time I'll throw darts at a map.
Unique to travel is also the fact that the memory of the experience often improves and becomes more precious with time: I would not trade my fondest travel memories for any material item. In comparison, the toys and gadgets I've purchased over the years are never as satisfying as when they first come out of the box, after which they usually degrade and obsolete steadily until its time for the landfill. Opening a box from Amazon depresses me; booking a plane ticket invigorates me.
Thank you! I only recently discovered de Botton’s work and it’s wonderful. I think within the first chapter I knew it was a book I’ll probably reread many times now. Fantastic commentary from you too. Grateful to read your thoughts Gary. Cheers! 😊
One of my favorite books growing up was "Gulliver's Travels" - even through I read it in translation (I didn't speak English growing up). Up until now i never connected it to a desire to travel, but it may have influenced me. Or, in my case, it could've been the fact that growing up in a country with closed borders, we couldn't ravel to other countries, so we always wanted to. But I think it's more than that; I think the desire to travel stems from the desire to learn more about the world, about people different from us, about environments different from what we know. I share your thoughts about travel being "a reminder that we live in a vast universe of the unknown with limited minds, that we should always be humbled by our ignorance, and that travel will always possess the capacity to restore us and nudge us to be less presumptuous and more generous and kind to others." Great post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I have been pondering about our urge, as humans, to travels. Is it a deep part of who we are? We’ve perhaps only spent about 5% of time as a species in this ‘modern’ era (I’m thinking of everything after about 12,000 ish years ago) in generally more settled lifestyles. As I understand it, that enormous span of time before that was a period when humans did move about a lot more. So maybe it is not something we are aware of but when we do it, it feels very natural to us to walk to the horizon and find out what we can see as we crest the next mountain pass. (Or go to Paris to see what it’s really like). I know that when I am on a self propelled bicycle journey or on trekking on foot, I feel in my element. Plus, often with travel, life is simplified to the basic things that have always concerned us as humans. Shelter, food, being warm or cool enough, noticing our environment around us, meeting people. The other modern ‘stuff’ of our lives melts away to an extent, and we feel the better for it.
I think it is a very deep part of who we are and your assessment is accurate. From what I’ve gathered studying archaeology and anthropology, human movement across the landscape has been the predominate mode of life for many millennia, especially when you account for our hominid cousins like Homo erectus which I went into the weeds a bit in a previous post here:
Modern life has a ton of benefits but some things are out of line with how we’ve evolved. There still is a lot to understood but cognitively at some point we evolved a unique capacity to not just remain in a single habitat like most species but to move to all areas of the globe. Very fun and fascinating stuff to contemplate. Thanks for engaging and sharing your thoughts Flora. 😊
I'm not sure why I was drawn to live abroad from a young age. Perhaps it was my unhappy family life. But what I felt was more running toward something, rather than running away from something. I definitely wanted away from my family. But more than that I wanted to see and experience other places.
That's certainly what drives me now as a nomad for the past seven years. And it almost doesn't matter where we go or whether I've heard of it or not. I'm currently in Portsmouth, UK, and love it here even though I never imagined spending time here.
Then again, I've loved almost everywhere we've gone.
I felt that same way ten years ago when I moved out of state and headed west. Definitely wanted to get away but more so to be in search of something. I always wonder how I would have fair if I had stayed. Many of my friends didn’t fair well staying in my hometown so I feel I made the right call and was lucky to be drawn away and felt like I found out a lot about myself being on my own. And I totally feel your last point too. I’ve always felt like I could find contentment just about it anywhere. Thanks for chiming in Michael! Also, I hope your head is feeling better and healing quickly. Cheers!
I love the reference to the term "human flourishing".
All of us desire some mix of the old and new in our worlds, a split between the familiar and unfamiliar. I think this is true in many aspects of our lives including our travels. In my everyday life, while I usually drive the same roads, I love finding different ways to get from Point A to Point B. On a grander scale, we'll eventually return to Paris. But, in the meantime, we are drawn to new and intriguing destinations.
I've always loved finding different ways to get from point A to B. It adds an element of discovery even to the most mundane trips we might take every day.
I am an American who has been drawn to exploring other countries for as long as I can remember. My motivation was to learn more about the people who live there, to experience their culture, taste their food, listen to their music, understand how they think about different aspects of life. To do this more fully, I wanted to live in a country and learn the language, not simply tour 10 countries in 10 days. Every place where I have spent considerable amounts of time (Mexico, Quebec, Afghanistan, Holland, Austria, Ireland) has expanded my understanding of the world and increased my capacity to understand the similarities that all human beings share regardless of appearances.
Wonderful words! I am hopeful that one day I too can live abroad for an extended time. I will be in Ireland this fall though and cannot wait. Thank you for sharing your story Clarice! :)
This was great Justin. I think one of the big arguments for travel is to find your place in the world, as in, what city, town or location is right for you.
Where is the place that attracts people who are like you, people who share similar interests. If we never leave our hometown and stay sheltered there our entire lives there will be so many missed experiences and unexplored hobbies.
Ever since relocating and starting a new life in Barcelona I have less of a desire to get "out there" and more of a desire to stay closer to home and explore my local area. I still enjoy traveling, but I don't feel the need to escape like I used to back when I lived in the suburbs of Florida.
Thank you Brian! Definitely true. My wife and I have traveled quite a bit and lived out west in Colorado and in the south in Tennessee the and only recently returned home to Indiana, now being new parents and wanting to be around family and friends more. I left Indiana a decade ago feeling I had to get away and explore so I chased my career in archaeology and had some wonderful adventures but lately have been surprised how much I’m enjoying being back home. But I still have itchy feet and get to travel about four times a year which is great too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I used to have that Alain de Botton book (I bought it at an airport, of course) but I donated it in a quest to free some bookshelf space and now I deeply regret it. Anyway, I think this article touches nicely on some of my motivations for travel.
For me, travel does definitely "stand apart" from other life choices. Traveling for pleasure is always technically unnecessary, so it feels like a privilege and an indulgence. I feel it is my duty to get the most out of it. There will only be so many trips taken in a lifetime, there are too many places to possibly visit them all, so I need to choose only a handful of destination based on some arbitrary criteria. But I embrace that randomness: I've ended up in some offbeat places simply because I stumbled across an article about it in a magazine, or read an offhand comment on reddit that piqued my interest. Maybe next time I'll throw darts at a map.
Unique to travel is also the fact that the memory of the experience often improves and becomes more precious with time: I would not trade my fondest travel memories for any material item. In comparison, the toys and gadgets I've purchased over the years are never as satisfying as when they first come out of the box, after which they usually degrade and obsolete steadily until its time for the landfill. Opening a box from Amazon depresses me; booking a plane ticket invigorates me.
Thank you! I only recently discovered de Botton’s work and it’s wonderful. I think within the first chapter I knew it was a book I’ll probably reread many times now. Fantastic commentary from you too. Grateful to read your thoughts Gary. Cheers! 😊
Botton writes with such clarity. I have the book 📖 in my bookcase. Someone else is probably very much enjoying yours!
One of my favorite books growing up was "Gulliver's Travels" - even through I read it in translation (I didn't speak English growing up). Up until now i never connected it to a desire to travel, but it may have influenced me. Or, in my case, it could've been the fact that growing up in a country with closed borders, we couldn't ravel to other countries, so we always wanted to. But I think it's more than that; I think the desire to travel stems from the desire to learn more about the world, about people different from us, about environments different from what we know. I share your thoughts about travel being "a reminder that we live in a vast universe of the unknown with limited minds, that we should always be humbled by our ignorance, and that travel will always possess the capacity to restore us and nudge us to be less presumptuous and more generous and kind to others." Great post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Thank you for the kind words and sharing your thoughts as well. 😊
I have been pondering about our urge, as humans, to travels. Is it a deep part of who we are? We’ve perhaps only spent about 5% of time as a species in this ‘modern’ era (I’m thinking of everything after about 12,000 ish years ago) in generally more settled lifestyles. As I understand it, that enormous span of time before that was a period when humans did move about a lot more. So maybe it is not something we are aware of but when we do it, it feels very natural to us to walk to the horizon and find out what we can see as we crest the next mountain pass. (Or go to Paris to see what it’s really like). I know that when I am on a self propelled bicycle journey or on trekking on foot, I feel in my element. Plus, often with travel, life is simplified to the basic things that have always concerned us as humans. Shelter, food, being warm or cool enough, noticing our environment around us, meeting people. The other modern ‘stuff’ of our lives melts away to an extent, and we feel the better for it.
I think it is a very deep part of who we are and your assessment is accurate. From what I’ve gathered studying archaeology and anthropology, human movement across the landscape has been the predominate mode of life for many millennia, especially when you account for our hominid cousins like Homo erectus which I went into the weeds a bit in a previous post here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thosewhowander/p/the-enigmatic-homo-erectus-the-first?r=2cmpys&utm_medium=ios
Modern life has a ton of benefits but some things are out of line with how we’ve evolved. There still is a lot to understood but cognitively at some point we evolved a unique capacity to not just remain in a single habitat like most species but to move to all areas of the globe. Very fun and fascinating stuff to contemplate. Thanks for engaging and sharing your thoughts Flora. 😊
I'm not sure why I was drawn to live abroad from a young age. Perhaps it was my unhappy family life. But what I felt was more running toward something, rather than running away from something. I definitely wanted away from my family. But more than that I wanted to see and experience other places.
That's certainly what drives me now as a nomad for the past seven years. And it almost doesn't matter where we go or whether I've heard of it or not. I'm currently in Portsmouth, UK, and love it here even though I never imagined spending time here.
Then again, I've loved almost everywhere we've gone.
I felt that same way ten years ago when I moved out of state and headed west. Definitely wanted to get away but more so to be in search of something. I always wonder how I would have fair if I had stayed. Many of my friends didn’t fair well staying in my hometown so I feel I made the right call and was lucky to be drawn away and felt like I found out a lot about myself being on my own. And I totally feel your last point too. I’ve always felt like I could find contentment just about it anywhere. Thanks for chiming in Michael! Also, I hope your head is feeling better and healing quickly. Cheers!
I've got a thick skull, so all good. LOL.
Yeah, when I think about folks back home, I'm incredibly glad I left. I'm sure that most of them are happy. But their lives were not meant for m.
Finding happiness and peace in the local is so satisfying.