Friday, April 6, 2012

a Traveler without High Purpose

After reading about people who travel in order to understand other cultures or generally become a better and fuller human being I might hesitate to say that I travel for the fun of it, but that is pretty much what it is.

I grew up with the Saturday movie serials, the adventure stories that Steven Spielberg drew on in fashioning the Indiana Jones stories.  As a little boy with no adult supervision I assumed that was what life was going be like, but it wasn't, until I discovered travel.

It is the common sin of travel writers to self-romanticize, but the wonderful thing about travel is that, if you have done it well, you don't have to make things up.  It really was an adventure.  Not like Indy's perhaps, but good enough for we little boys, now grown up.

2 comments:

  1. If we keep a childhood sense of curiosity up, our travels will always be exciting! I have been blessed to be able to see and do a lot in my life and I hope it continues, but if not, I won't have regrets for what I've experienced.

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    1. @ Sage, Very true. A more upbeat formulation of a point I may have made too negatively in a comment on a story by Ray Bradbury, on the sufficiency of memory

      This childhood sense of curiosity also relates to my lack of interest in modern travel aids that would seem to take the delight of discovery out of travel. If I know what is around the next corner or bend in the river, why bother to go there?

      On a wholly unrelated point: several months back you had mentioned that you regretted that none of your ancestors had left journals of their service in the Revolution and Civil War. If you order copies of Federal and State service records you can often find some surprising information in the notations, as well as names of people they served with (particularly their officers) who might have left such journals.

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