I always knew that I wanted to travel. From the age of I
don’t know when, my life’s ambition was to visit the USA. This was the 1960s
when it wasn’t all that achievable. So when I found myself walking down 42nd
Street in Manhattan at the age of 19 in 1975 I felt quite smug. Obviously I had
to set my sights higher once that goal was achieved.
Since then I have managed my life and career with a view to
experiencing as much as I could of the world in all its variety. I have been
around the world a few times. That is I set out travelling in one direction and
continued moving forward until I arrived back where I started. I have visited
every continent except Antarctica and clocked up more than 90 countries in the
list maintained by the Travellers’ Century Club. Despite all that, I am not
trying to write a travelogue here. Rather I want to write about the state of
the world as I see it with a perspective that is informed by having visited
quite a lot of it over the years.
Today I am thinking a lot about recent events in Paris, a
city I have visited many times. But I am also thinking about Syria, Lebanon,
Mali, Nigeria, Yemen and the good old USA where 130 people shot dead wouldn’t
even represent two day’s worth of business as usual. Of course even in the USA it would be unusual
to see 130 deaths in such a short time and so close together. Is that the
reason Paris is so shocking? Or is it just that it happened close to home?
That’s one of the questions I will be considering. Mostly I
am writing things down to get them straight in my own mind but if anyone should
read what I write and want to comment that would be interesting.
Travel probably does broaden the mind, provided the mind is
prepared to be broadened. Discussion and argument can do it too so long as at
least some of us remember the golden rule. It needs to be a two way process. Listening
is not just waiting for your own turn to speak.
This theory holds there are four "vectors" of meaning: Nature, Art, Relationships, and Spirit. The last one includes Knowledge, the Philosophical, as well as the Spiritual. (Maybe I need to rename it, any suggestions, comment below.)
ReplyDeleteYou could draw these vectors eminating from a "Self" which is in the center. The theory goes that all meaning or value comes from the experiencing of one of these four vectors:
•The Spirit Knowledge, Self-Reflection, Prayer
•The Other: Developing Relationships with other people, like 20 years of marriage!
•The World: Experiencing Nature, like a 6 day walk in the alps!
•The Aesthetic: Experiencing Art
I like this image but I think that the vectors are also interlinked. Art draws on nature. The relationships that you have with others affect your view of both. I also think that stories are an important thread that can connect them all. It's a theme I hope to develop in a future post. I am coming to the view that the most fundamental building block of society is the story.
ReplyDeleteIan we are just wanderers and this is our role/lot in life. Some call it restlessness some call it other things. However you label it - I believe that it has made our respective lives richer. Purely personally - I get to experience things that are different and each time that I add to that makes my life - well better. Thanks for this - I will read.
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