Travel

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." RLS

How true!

I read that yesterday and it totally defines my life's philosophy. I love to travel. I love to see new things and talk to people and smell the smells of different lands. I live to see the landscape and see if I can identify the differences in the plants and animals that are foreign to me. The flavors of distinct regions of the world, or state, or even city, can be so discretely, but at the same time, completely variable. I really value the importance of travel for so many reasons but especially to see other people's beliefs and ways of life, hopefully learn a thing or 2 to improve my own life, even if that improvement comes in the form of knowing that I am satisfied with my life style and don't like the lifestyle that I observed elsewhere.

The other thing that was astounding about this quote is that I find it incredible that someone else, from a different time can so accurately explain my emotions. It's a tribute to the similarity of humans. We may often think about our feelings as unique but how wrong is that? Everything we've felt, other humans potentially have the capacity to feel as well. How amazing is that? To know that you have a sort of emotional connection with a poet from the 5th century BC who spoke a language that is now extinct! Or that people have been falling in love, feeling betrayed, suffered due to their emotions for, well, I don't even know how long but it's been documented in the form of literature since at least the 7th century BC. How cool is that?

I wish for humanity that we hold on to those things we have in common. And that we cherish those priceless things, like love and emotions, even loneliness and sadness.