I’m going on a journey. I leave in just a few hours. And since when did we stop calling trips, journeys? I’d like to speak to a manager, please.
Is there is a difference between a journey and a trip? I suppose a trip is somewhere you go. A journey… now, that’s something you do.
So I will do.
I’ve always wanted to solo travel. There is an allure that traveling is the clearest mirror in which to view yourself. For it reflects the truest version of you back: strip away your patterns and routines and comforts and habits and see what remains.
So I will see.
I’m of the opinion that you take yourself with you wherever you go. Hemingway wrote about that in The Sun Also Rises.Emerson’s, Self-Reliance, is even more condemning of travel:
Traveling is a fool’s paradise… the soul is no traveler; the wise man stays at home.
Also Emerson…
I thank the Great God who has led me through this European scene, this last schoolroom in which he as pleased to instruct me…
So I will travel.
Who knows, maybe I will take myself with me. If I am introverted at home what makes me think I will talk to strangers in a foreign land in a foreign language? I’ve learned a lot about myself this year. I’m not the introverted self I used to be. No, this year has been different. I learned that I must go out to see the world.
So I went out.
I’ve made new friends, talked to more strangers, and for once in my life I have preferred the world outside compared to my safe inner four walls.
Sometimes I feel like I am a spool of thread. I am the string. My life is unwinding, being pulled on by some invisible force. Sometimes the string is loose and I feel lost. Other times there is a sharp pull on the thread and I am jerked back, reminded of the path this string is on.
I’m learning to trust the string puller. Not because they direct my life. It’s just comforting to remember that I am on a path. And it just happens to be the right one.
So when this travel journey opportunity arose, I knew I had to take it. I had to see where the string was taking me. Maybe I take myself with me. Maybe life in that city will be no different than my imaginary one. But maybe not.
A friend called me last night. They asked me if I had ever heard of “Chinese String Theory.” I had not. The idea is that everyone has an invisible red string tied to a finger. The other end of the string is tied to someone else’s finger. Though there may be knots and twists and much unspooling to do, the two ends will one day meet.
It’s a nice idea— two people tethered together. But I also like the idea of one end of a string being tied down. The whole of our lives is a dance from one end to the next. We know where we end up, but it is the journey across the string that is the fun part.
So I will dance.
Naturally, I think about who I want to be on this journey. What sort of traveler am I? I want the usual things: to be curious, open, kind, and observant. What else? Perhaps something more brave? To be adventurous, creative, interested and interesting. We must ask ourselves that question everyday. What sort of traveler do we wish to be on the journey to the end of our string?
The Chinese String Theory is a nice one if you consider how you might have a string attached to all the friends you made. Some strings will break, some will fade, others will grow stronger.
“I’ve made new friends, talked to more strangers, and for once in my life I have preferred the world outside compared to my safe inner four walls.” I relate to this feeling so! Glad to be in good company 😀