travel broadens the mind, duh.

[keryx]

I've been thinking about the way we travel. This guy at work just came back from two weeks in Hawai'i, and I'd expected to be able to relate to something from his experience - cause, the whole Hawaiian trip in the spring, fascinating to me, and also opened up some new fields of study I hadn't considered. But not so much. His highlights were all of the "I relaxed a lot and then I saw some nature" variety.

Nature is cool, don't get me wrong. But the nature is restorative. It isn't provocative (for me at least; it is for some). A good travel experience, for me, sparks a million different ideas about the world or yourself. That release of new thoughts is itself restorative and exciting in a way that the usual "kicking back" isn't.

It's possible that people just don't talk about this, but they do experience it. That it isn't part of the language of vacation, or it's too ineffable; I mean, I don't think I can qualify how each trip to my favorite spot in Baltimore changes my mind. Certainly the adventure travelers I've met have to just accept that the experiences, at least, will defy explanation. And I could say, "you know, I've been thinking a lot about colonialism and the nature of statehood and, by the way, Creole languages are really captivating my interest these days", but I'm more likely to say, "yeah, the Bishop Museum was really worthwhile".

Taking a sociocultural perspective, too, there is less of an emphasis on experiences as educational today than there might have been a century ago - and, if you're up on the research on the two income trap, much more reason for the middle class family to need to just kick back in our leisure time.

I have a lot of undeveloped, barely connected thoughts on this subject (did you guess that?). What do you think? That is - what does vacationing, or travel in general, do for you?

Comments

[rackletang.livejournal.com]

It's hard for me to talk about my travel experiences sometimes, because they are so internal and so visceral. Not in an "I went bungee jumping" kind of way, but in the sense that I just like to wander around and get a feel for a place, which is hard to pin words to. It's how I decided to move to Seattle - wander, sit, watch, breathe... Yeah, that seems right. :)

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

i've had the great privilege of travelling. i have not been many places, but spent considerable time doing so. three years in japan, three years in bali. and short trips to singapore, thailand and hong kong. my experience changed the way i viewed the world. really opened my eyes to respect the fact there is more than one culture on this planet. :-)
holiday/vacation, i see in a different way than travel. vacation is more of an outward trip. travel an inward journey. :-)

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I agree with zhenzhi; there's vacation and then there's travel. I like to plan trips so that there are a couple days of lying on a beach or strolling through the woods or otherwise just recharging, but beyond a few days of that, I like to spend the rest of the time exploring and having my perspective enlarged.