It’s travel week on the Napkin Dad Daily. Ideas stimulated by my vacation last week.
The hardest thing to do is to escape oneself. The construction of self takes many years, decades. And when you travel it isn’t much different than putting your home on a trailer and moving . You may go to a new location but everything follows you. How do you leave your world behind and reconstruct your self, even if just a bit, when you go away from home?
One way is to bring very little. Expect to buy things where you go. Maybe not expensive stuff, but shampoo, accessories, certain clothing items, etc. Don’t bring all the things you need to make yourself as you always are. Go au natural with things, see what you discover about yourself and the new place you go.
I remember going to Europe in 2003 with my daughters and one of the most fun and informative things was going into grocery stores to buy food for picnics and snacks, and other needed stuff. The hair product company, Garnier, was everywhere and I thought the design and packaging was very interesting. Lo and behold, a few years later they come to the USA and I see them marketing to Americans.
Travel and see with new eyes.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust, French Novelist, 1871-1922
This is a week long series on travel, a result of my thoughts from my recent vacation to Cape Cod and Boston over the 4th of July week.
It’s very easy in the current age to ‘see’ the world via photographs, video, internet and words. It is easy to think you are exposed to it all. And in some ways you are.
But go to that same place you have seen on TV and you quickly realize how much more you experience in person. It is the air, the light, the people, the accents, the birds, the animals, the manners, the food, the sidewalks, the trees, the smells, the buildings, the events.
They all add up to the experience of knowing another place and reading more of the book.
Go somewhere and really notice.
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.” – St. Augustine – church father, 354-430 AD
Day 2 of decompression from my vacation. I am still thinking about travel and so am going to continue this week (maybe) in drawing about it.
During our vacations it is a tradition that about half way in we will turn to each other and ask ‘what is your favorite part, so far?’. We will tell what event was the best in our minds, and also what part was the least fun or interesting. This year the whale watching was pretty much the #1 favorite of the first half.
What is funny is that the first 2 1/2 hours of the whale watching trip was easily the worst time of the trip up to that point. It was cold, it was very foggy (no horizon in sight) and it was boring. The people around me were purple lipped from the cold, red faced from the wind, eyes watering from the wind, and bored.
It wasn’t until we had pretty much given up hope and realized we were have to return to the Provincetown without seeing a whale that 2 whales appeared. Then the mood changed. Then the sun broke through just a bit. Then the whales came close. Then the whales breached (jumped) out of the water. Sometimes completely. Then they did it again, very close to the boat. They put on a show like the captain and the naturalist and the crew hadn’t even ever seen. The lady next to us had been on 20 whale watching tours and had never seen one jump, much less the dozen or so we saw. She was wooping it up like she was at a tight baseball game in the 9th inning! The whale watching fiasco of a mere 45 minutes earlier was just a great lead in to the big climactic story of the breaching whales in the glorious setting sun.
What we remember is greater than what we saw. It is the story, the arch of the event, the people, the feeling, the mood and the mood swings, that we add into the event to make it what it is in our mind. I love that about travel.
“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli – 1804 – 1881, British Prime Minister (twice) under Queen Victoria
Hello all you Napkin Kin! I am back from vacation with a new drawing, appropriately about traveling.
I love traveling for the education and the sights and the uniqueness of the place. Going somewhere for just sun and sand and doing nothing is the goal for some, but for me I want to see the world, meet the people, see the art, the sports, and eat the food.
I find out who I am when I travel. Partly by seeing who I am not by experiencing a culture I am not a part of, and partly by seeing who I am by how I react to it all.
I know one thing it always makes me feel. And that is gratitude that I can see the world and love that the world allows itself to be seen.
“A traveller without observation is a bird without wings.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi
“People travel to faraway places to watch in fascination the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes
I love to travel and am looking forward to getting back to Europe next year maybe. I remember visiting for the first time in 2003 and realizing how interesting people were, on the bus, at the beach, in the B&B or cafes. Then coming home and seeing that, if I just paid attention, there were interesting unique people and things in my home town as well.
I haven’t spotted mechanoman (see above) yet, but I will introduce myself if I do!
“The longer you stay in one place, the greater your chances of disillusionment.” – Art Spander
I wonder if the author meant staying physically in one place or staying emotionally in one place. I can see both being true, but I can also see staying in one place emotionally increasing the chances of happiness as well. What do you think?
