Category: Academia

My Dear Friend, 

You email for news of my journey and through your words, I am fondly reminded of our warm friendship. My travels have indeed brought me to the other side of the world and I have experienced many new and wonderful lands, filled with exotic animals, new peoples and strange customs. I have witnessed much to be sure, but I remain the true and constant friend that you knew from days gone by.  

Travel, to be sure, can awaken growth and learning within the thoughtful, but it does not of itself imbue one with great growth or learning. It does not make one a wiser man, a kinder soul or a more moderate presence. For, the attainment of those virtues requires an altogether deeper journey from that which men look for abroad. 

How many are those that one meets in the street, who define themselves, their very identity, as the embodiment of exotic and wonderful travels? How wise are they, who never satisfied, continue ‘to bag’ as many far-off places as they can? A collection of trophy-backdrops to be bagged for social media. Their constant travels lending only the semblance of depth, refinement, attractiveness and sophistication? “Kudos to X” you will hear in the market, “do you know how many places they have been?” Never settling, never reflecting and never truly learning of their true nature within. Those souls are destined to wander widely on this earth, but in fact to travel very little. 

One can purchase far flung journeys, like any common commodity. Just another ‘product’ from the market. In an age of travel-consumerism we are sold immersion travel and experiential holidays.  But are not all of us immersed in life? True life. Do we not all experience it? Must mass-marketed experiences be purchased at all, by those that truly live? 

If you hope buying travel will make you more interesting, you must think again. In that regard, one might as well seek to buy love, wisdom or happiness. Any commodity! Many claim to sell the genuine goods, but true values are hard to find and cheap foreign ‘knock-offs’ flood the marketplace. All too easy and meaningless to acquire. Yet still the lost soul seeks them, with those who adorn themselves with travel, being really no different from those that might buy a fancy coat, or a fine shirt. Wonderful in appearance they may be, but they are of appearance only. The imperfect body beneath, just like the imperfect self, remains unaddressed. That naked self beneath, is no more virtuous, no more interesting and no more wise form the adornment of fine clothes, or fine travels. 

“Oh, but we went to find ourselves” you will hear the chorus chime.  Though did you really need to travel for that? Could you not have agreed to meet yourselves more locally?  You would have saved much time and money. You would have saved the planet something and reduced your carbon footprint. “But hey! Just to check. Did you attempt at all, to find yourself, before you left?” Or is it easier to find one’s true self in hot weather, at a nice hotel, by a lovely beach or a pool?  Just asking. 

And how much travel is enough for the unfulfilled soul? How restless and relentless becomes the insatiable desire of a troubled mind to keep seeking new lands, new mountains and new cities? Each one offering nothing more than temporary distraction from the inner self. Each one offering but a fleeting respite from reality. While the greater journey, the true journey within, remains un-begun. 

Most do not journey to find themselves, alas, they travel in order to lose themselves. A short distraction from our lives as they truly are.  To travel in the hope of escaping oneself is the horizon that never gets closer. An endless journey. You are destined to meet your same self on many landings and on many foreign shores. A kind of holiday Groundhog day. How disappointed are they, who, on escaping their own problems and wretchedness, is perpetually greeted in each new port by their very own, troubled self? Guided through foreign lands by the same avarice, fears, ignorance and selfishness. Poor travel companions indeed. Companions one would rather leave at home. Travel does not moderate a person, it does not curb the temper, end one’s selfishness, or in itself impart new wisdom. It makes no better, no saner, no less flawed you. A runaway you might be, but you are still the slave. 

Some say they travel to experience new culture, but who these days cannot experience all the exotic flavours of the world, in their very own home? Who cannot appreciate the iconic sights and sounds of the world, with just the click of a mouse? Who cannot, if they really chose to, meet and speak with refugees or immigrants from any far-flung corner of the globe? Yet how many really seek to do that?  

“Ah, but it’s not at all the same as being there” the chorus rallies. Though who can even get close to the great sights of the world these days? When legions of tourists lay siege the places they seek to appreciate. When wooded groves, pristine coasts and tropical jungles all succumb to invasion. Buried under soulless hotels, visitor centres and concrete carparks. What reflective being can rejoice to see the very last native animals of this earth laying as roadkill, while tourists drive mindlessly in cars to conservation parks in search of ‘wildlife’? 

What wisdom does ‘blind’ travel offer? The greatest cultural sights of our world obscured by forests of smartphones and tablets, all held aloft. Impenetrable.  All capturing blurry imperfect shots. All pursued in the travellers’ portrayal of a perfect digital life on Facebook or Instagram. Snaps that validate the owners’ digital worth. Trophy hunters capturing just another commodity. Just another consumer experience. Would the experience be as valued, were it not so conspicuous to others?  Yes, I also was at that place, the place that everyone has to go.  “Yes, we’ve done Rome.”  “Yes, we did Angkor Wat” “Yes, we’re doing Vegas next year”. “The Mona Lisa, the Taj Mahal, they’re all on the bucket-list.”  All going on my Facebook. All going on my Instagram. One has to be accepted by the tribe.

“Yet, travel broadens the mind”  I hear the descant. Surely it has that value? The great hero Odysseus was not praised amongst the Greeks for travelling to the edge of the world. No, he was lauded for his forbearance and resolve, for never giving up and persevering through epic challenge. For resolute desire to battle homewards. It was his virtues and not his travels that made him a hero. He was no pleasure tourist, but a wretched exile, a shipwrecked sailor and the plaything of fortune. Discomfort, ruin, risk and hardship were his guides, for manliness develops much strength from challenges. Travel in distant lands provides but a backdrop to true wisdom, just as any home city might, but that backdrop of itself, is immaterial. It is not the genesis of virtue and wisdom. Those only come from within. 

You cannot outrun yourself by fleeing to far flung shores, you will always be met by your failings.  You can at best distract yourself and inevitably you just exchange the backdrop to your suffering.  I would not wish myself a well-travelled man, if I had failed to make that greater journey within. We must seek inner wisdom. Without self-reflection and the reference to wiser thinking, exotic temples and foreign mountains are but a distraction from the un-enlightened state.  

Salutations Dear Friend

P.S. Enjoy that next holiday when it comes around.