Why Now?
From the immortal words of James Hetfield of Metallica:
Rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond, call me what you will.
I have posted this in a previous trip travel blog but I thought it was intergral in my planning for this trip so I would include it here as well. A couple of years ago while surfing the web for various inspirational and practical travel material I found a book that I later purchased and immediately read. It is called “Vagabonding” by Rolf Potts. I think it is a must read for anyone that even considers long-term travel as possibility but might need that extra push or confidence. I will admit, without having read this book I probably wouldn’t be doing what i’m doing now, which is giving up a little bit of comfort and consistancy for the unknown on the open road.
In one of the early chapters of “Vagabonding” he starts off by talking about a story told from the tradition of a group of Christian Monks living in Egypt about 1700 years ago.
In the tale, a couple of monks named Theodore and Lucious shared the acute desire to go out and see the world. Since they’d made vows of contemplation, however, this was not something they were allowed to do. So, to satiate their wanderlust, Theodore and Lucious learned to “mock their temptations” by relegating their travels to the future. When the summertime came, they said to each other, “We will leave in the winter.” When the winter came, they said, “We will leave in the summer.” They went on like this for over fity years, never once leaving the monasetery or breaking their vows.
Most of us, of course, have never taken such vows– but we chose to live like monks anyway, rooting ourselves to a home or a career and using the future as a kind of phony ritual that justifies the present. In this way, we end up spending (as Thoureau put it) “the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.” We’d love to drop all and explore the world outside, we tell ourselves, but the time never seems right. Thurs, given an unlimited amount of choices, we make none. Settling into our lives, we get so obsessed with holding on to our domestice certainties that we forget why we deseired them in the first place.
Tags: Pre-Trip
Joey
nice. 🙂
So this was certainly the best of your most recent four posts… (although I agree on BofA as well)…
We are night and day in what we want from life but on exactly the same page when it comes to the fact we won’t keep saying “maybe tomorrow” when it comes to what we want from life.
Thank u so much 4 sharing your daily activities ..It makes me feel like I’m there with you on your travels..
I didn’t get chance to say goodbye since I was out but I’m sure I’ll see ya around when you get back ..on one of gatherings..
I’ll keep reading about your exciting adventures..you Indiana Jones you!
What a way to start your NEW YEAR… Peace and happiness..