I've had a really hard time focusing on my blog writing the past week or two. I have a few entries started, but I keep getting distracted by other topics and losing my train of thought.
What I want more than anything else is to see the world. Reading about the events in all these other places is not enough for me. I want to experience them, I want to have a frame of reference, my own personal context for things. For instance, there are many articles in the news right now about Ramadan as Muslims around the world eagerly look to the moon for the cue to begin what will be the holiest month of this year for them. Having experienced a community while it is fasting gives me a completely different perspective on these articles. I can smell the ocean breeze as it blows from the Atlantic onto Rabat beach, hear the call to prayer, see the empty daytime streets lined with locked shop doors, and taste the delicious feast had each night to celebrate the breaking of that day's fasting.
I think my imagination is lazy. I don't want to have to use it to suppose what other places are like - I want to know, firsthand. I want to describe with complete certainty the things that exist in faraway places, thus closing the gap between here and there. Nowhere really is a "faraway place," and I think that once this is realized, one has no choice but to gain a profound understanding of how badly this world needs us to accept one another.
I'm getting itchy. I need to travel.
Maybe I'll buy a lottery ticket on the way home.
When I was in college, I maxed out my credit cards to travel. I am paying for it now, literally, but I wouldn't trade the experiences. I am not saying to make poor financial choices, but life is short. ; )
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm really trying to save up for now is a month-long trip to India where I can get certified as a yoga teacher at an Ashram. It costs the same (sometimes less!) as getting certified over a longer period of time in the city.
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