dash for cash or crash with hash….is there more to life?
Thursday, September 6th, 2007I’ve been hanging round a bit on the Boots-n-all travel fora, asking my fair share of questions, occasionally having something to add to discussions. I have noticed a bit of an obsession with travel – not surprising, I suppose;-) BUT it has made me think it can be *just another something* that fills the void of a searching soul.
For us, travel will enhance our lives and we have lots of expectations about the process. But we don’t expect it to replace what we have. We are not despondent about how we are living now and just waiting to escape.
Another guy, who has only just joined the Boots community, had this to say in his second post- I hope to hear more from him in the future. (note BNA = Boots-n-All)
Here is the thing. Whether you are living the standard life of the generation preceding you…the whole, work till 65 and then retire and take a tour of Europe…or the life of many you see on BNA…work for a couple years at a job you hate scrimping by so you can take a tour of the world for a year (then repeat)…you are doing something very dangerous: mortgaging your present day happiness for the future. There is no more a guarantee you will live to see your one year trip than your parents will live to see their retirement…nor that that one year trip will be everything you dreamed it to be, just as your parents might find retirement not quite the reward they hoped for in exchange for 50hr work weeks.
It may seem that you are doing something different by putting your mini-retirement on a shorter time line, but in essence it is all the same. By living like that, you are telling yourself it is okay to be miserable (or even just not so happy) with your current life because you have the promise of everything being perfect in the future…when you don’t have a job, when you don’t have possessions, when you don’t have a watch, whatever…
The present moment you live in holds everything you need to be happy and fulfilled. Traveling, vagabonding, whatever you wish to call it, is not something you arrive at or experience…it is something you have to live if it is to have any meaning beyond a lifestyle to be consumed. And the thing is, you don’t have to go half-way around the world to live it. It starts when you know in your heart that you have everything you need to be happy; right here, right now. It’s when you know that you live a life of abundance and are privileged enough to choose whether you want to buy in to consumerism and the dominant culture or live a healthy, but less glamorous life.
Some people need to travel around the world to see this. They need to witness the Bangkok slum, filled with smiling children to realize how wonderful their lives are and how petty their problems. But that is not the only way…how many homeless, refugees, single mothers, etc. live in your town? How often do you step out of your normal routine and see the lives of others? If that is what you are seeking in your travel experience…do it today. Find out how you feel when faced with that sort of dichotomy…between rich and poor in this world.
If you find it revolting and want little to do with it…well then, you saved yourself from years of saving for a travel experience you don’t really want.
If it touches your soul, then you’ll have found your answer and everything else will follow with absolute certainty. You’ll find yourself not really caring about all the mainstream stuff…because you’ll know you don’t need it to be happy. Likewise, you’ll find that you don’t need to wait however many years until you are traveling to have rewarding experiences…they are all right there in front of you. You’ll learn to love living simply not as a means to save, but as a means to show you understand what it is to be alive. Maybe you’ll save more, maybe less, as you reach an equilibrium…maybe give some of that travel money to help those close to you…maybe change your travel plans to include teaching or volunteering rather than holing up with hash and beer and on the other side of the world.
Either way, I guarantee your life will be richer for it…
rayres